Pain Inside
by teresa
Summary: In a place more mundane, a time of peace and relative ease, can so many people's lives be tied in such intricate ways, or is this pain we feel a sign that it was never meant to be?
1. Coffee and Betrayal

So, after much nagging on the part of my imouto, I'm giving in and typing up this fic, my first posted Sailor Moon fanfiction.  I feel so well rounded, anime-wise.  I needed a break from certain other categories, so we'll see how this goes.  You could say the inspiration from this story came from several different places, but I think it all coalesced after I interviewed a peer from Japan about the school system for my third year Japanese project.  So, if any of this seems odd to the readers, I'm sorry, but this is how school is in Japan, not America.  Okay?

*****

Pain Inside

Part 1

*****

It all started on a Saturday morning at 10 am.  Actually, to be fair, that was only when the placement examination began.  To tell the truth, it had started at about eight o'clock that morning, when the first few exam candidates were gathering together.  Not at the center, obviously, not that early.  But before a placement exam, it helped to have the morale support of your closest friends.  It helped even _more_ if they were going to take the same examination as you.  Of course, that morning, there were literally hundreds of teenagers that, having graduated from quite a few different middle schools, were preparing for that exam, the one that would tell them whether or not they would attend Eien Academy for the next three years of their lives.  Of course, if we were to look at _all_ of these candidates, this would be a very long and convoluted story indeed.  Mainly, we are concerned with seventeen incumbent examinees, which at this point in our story can be split evenly enough into six groups of varying size and of varying levels of activity at this time, three hours before this very important exam that they had all spent much of the last year preparing for.  Or at least, _intending_ to prepare.

Eien Academy was a school of middling quality in the grand scheme of Japanese high schools.  It was not a private school, but for a public school, it was still rather good.  Every year, they accepted four classes of thirty freshmen each, totally up to 120 new students each year.  Other schools were bigger, some were smaller.  The fact of the matter remained that this examination would be the end of the line to Eien for many of the hopeful candidates.

This had one particular boy worried.

You see, he had been up all night with his three closest friends, boys that he had attended middle school with, boys that he had sworn a solemn oath to continue on to Eien Academy alongside.  The smartest of their number could have possibly placed in a better school, but he likely could not afford a private education.  The boy that was worried, however, was not nearly so smart as his friend.

He knew about things that he felt were _important_.  He just didn't think those things were the kind of information tested on high school entrance exams.  Surely, there would not be a question which asked for an essay on creative pranking, or on the physical properties of a well-made water balloon, or which was the most effective glue that was available at any drug store.  If these were on the examination, this boy would not be feeling so very poorly about his chances after spending the entire night with his three friends, having one last all-night cram session before the test.

He thought that his friends seemed annoyingly confident about their chances.  He thought that if any one of them were to fail and be left behind, it would be him, Jadeite Akahito.  He thought that it would most obviously be horrible starting high school on his own and surrounded by people whose test scores were as abysmal as his.  He also thought that his friends were far too confident in his own ability to retain information that morning, and that if they knew the depth of his panic, perhaps they would not all look so utterly at ease as they walked side by side into a coffee shop.

"Jadeite, what's with that face?" Nephlyte Midorishi questioned his worried blonde companion as they all sat to decide what they wanted to keep them up through the upcoming test.  "You'll be fine.  Eien lets practically _anyone_ in."

"I'm sure we'll all do very well." Zoicite Aoseishi asked, green eyes soft, his voice sounding much more concerned and sympathetic than that of his smirking brunette companion.  Zoicite was a very pretty boy, and from a distance, he was often mistaken for a girl, even though he clearly had no chest to speak of.  Jadeite would have attributed this mistake to Zoicite's long tresses of wavy blonde hair pulled back in a sensible tail at the back of the boy's neck, but the fact of the matter was that of his four companions, Jadeite was the only one who wore his hair short.  He thought it looked silly the one time he _had_ grown out his own slightly wavy blonde hair, and so he kept it in a boy-cut despite the fact that it separated him in another way from his friends.  "You just need to remember all that we've talked about and studied, and you will easily pass, Jadeite."

"You think so?" Jadeite sighed.  "Well, I suppose I'll just have to hope.  It would suck to be left behind, you guys."

"Then do your best." Kunzite Kidan folded his long fingers in front of him, bright grey eyes glinting seriously from beneath silvery white bangs.  "That is all any of us can do."

"And don't think that we'll purposefully flunk it so that you don't have to be alone." Nephlyte teased.  "Now, who's getting coffees?"  After a quick round of paper-rock-scissors, Jadeite was walking to the front counter with everyone's money and orders in mind.  That was when he had an ingenious idea.

Nothing that would be on the examination, of that he was sure.  But it was a real life skill, and it was the type of thing that Jadeite truly excelled at.  His bright blue eyes flashed in excitement.

----------

"Time to get up, sweetie." The soft voice held a musical quality that made the ruffled blonde wrapped in her covers smile slightly despite her groan of protest.

"Mmm…what time is it?" one deep blue eye opened to take in a blur of aqua and cream that shortly came into focus.

"Look, breakfast," the beautiful girl sat next to her waking companion, setting the tray in her lap carefully.  "Never take an exam on an empty stomach, Haruka, isn't that right?"

"You'd know better than me." Haruka yawned and stretched, her short blonde hair in utter disarray as she beamed at the girl beside her.  "So, you gonna feed me then, Michiru?"

"I think you can manage on your own." Michiru blushed lightly, spearing a piece of fruit on her own fork and smiling.  "Besides that, if we played around, we'd never get ready for the test."

"What time is it, anyway?" Haruka repeated her earlier question, trying in vain to fix her mussed hair.  "And how come your hair will stay where it's supposed to and mine won't?"

"It is eight-twenty, and my hair is behaving because I showered when I woke up at seven, Haruka." Michiru explained as she watched Haruka help herself to a chunk of melon.  "And I wouldn't worry about it.  I think your hair looks good, first thing in the morning, all haphazard and wild."

"Oh, then maybe you'd like it, too?" Haruka leaned forward and reached for Michiru's hair, causing the aqua-haired girl to leap away and nearly spill the tray before she set it on the bedside table with a severe frown on her pink lips.

"I didn't say I wanted _my_ hair to be a mess." She scolded lightly, and in answer, Haruka hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her over onto the bed, rolling her until the shorthaired girl was on top, and Michiru was more trapped in the blankets than her captor.

"I like it when your hair is messy." Haruka whispered lightly, kissing Michiru's temple.  "Because you only let me see it that way.  It makes me feel special.  Loved."

"I do love you, Haruka." Michiru's frown melted into a warm smile.  "Even when you ruin my hair."

"Even then?"

"Especially then."

----------

"Come _on_, you fat lump!  Get up!" a girl with long black hair and flashing purple eyes shoved at the girl sleeping on her floor in a tangle of blankets.  "It's nearly nine!  Don't you want breakfast before you have to go fail the test?"

"Breakfast?" like magic, the blonde girl's blue eyes flew open at that word, and she repeated it as if questioning what she'd heard.  "Food?"

"Yes, Makoto's made us all chocolate-chip pancakes, and we saved some for you even though you eat too much and you slept in so late you don't really _need_ them." The dark-haired girl lectured.  "You're hopeless, Usagi."  But the blonde had leapt up at the word pancakes and was now scrambling down the hall to the kitchen.

"Good job, Rei!" a cheerful blonde who looked strikingly similar to Usagi Tsukino greeted the scowling girl returned from her wake-up mission.  "I thought she'd sleep right through exams."

"Wait…today's…exams?" Usagi paused between ridiculous mouthfuls of food, and Rei Hino sighed in annoyance.

"Yes, Usagi.  Remember how we all studied until midnight last night?" another girl with short blue hair and politely blinking blue eyes asked Usagi slowly.  "That was for the exams that we have today."

"To get into Eien Academy, remember?" the cheerful blonde bounced over to her slightly ill-looking counterpart.

"Uh…Minako…I think that spoiled my appetite." Usagi sighed just as a tall girl with green eyes and a ponytail of wavy brown hair entered with another plate full of food.  Usagi's eyes lit up and she turned to this new supply with gusto.

"Awfully hungry for having her appetite spoiled." The blue-haired girl commented in a soft tone.

"Yeah, well, Usagi actually has six appetites.  That's her secret." Rei explained.

"Is that possible, Ami?" Minako Aino turned to the girl with blue hair, a curious frown on her face.

"No, Minako, it is not." Ami Mizuno answered as patiently as if they were in class and Minako was only a small child not expected to know such things.

"It's called a joke, Mina-chan." Makoto Kino, the brunette, explained.  "Don't take Rei seriously, you know better."

"Thanks Mako-chan." Rei deadpanned.  "Now hurry it up, garbage disposal girl, we've got a test to get to."

"There's still nearly an hour." Ami offered peaceably.  "We should still be able to get really good seats."

"Can I sit next to you, Ami?" Usagi pleaded, her mouth empty only because her plate was.

"No cheating, fathead." Rei chastised the girl in a playful tone that let her know she wasn't serious.

"I suppose so, but I don't see how much of a difference it will make." Ami shrugged willingly.

"Obviously, I heard this idea once that smartness…it's like a wave!  And I think you attract it, so I want to be right next to you, Ami." Usagi explained.

"Dibs on Ami's other side!" Minako raised her hand up high, and Rei grumbled something about ditzy blondes.  It was going to be a long day.

----------

"Come on, then." Hotaru Tomoe had let herself into the apartment at approximately nine o' five, when it became apparent that Mamoru was not going to answer the door on his own.  "You can't just mope your way into Eien."

"I don't want to go, Hotaru." The dark haired young man answered, his voice muffled by layers of sheets and blankets he'd pulled around him ever tighter when Hotaru had tried to rouse him ten minutes ago.  "What's the point?"

"That's a stupid question, Mamoru Chiba." She answered, sounding rather annoyed as she stared at him, purple eyes flashing slightly under black bangs.  "What would your parents want you to do, just lay here and feel sorry for yourself?"

"They're not here to tell me." He answered after a long pause, and Hotaru let out an annoyed sigh.

"Does that mean you should disappoint them, wasting your life like this?" Hotaru demanded.  His shoulders shook in a shuddering sob, and she softened immediately, kneeling to touch his back.  "Please, Mamoru, don't do this to yourself.  I know that it hurts, and I'm sorry, but the world won't put itself on pause until you feel better."

"I'll never feel better." He told her, sitting up finally.  She smiled down at him and offered her hand.

"I know.  My mother died long ago, but I still miss her, you know." She told him, and he scrubbed a hand through messy hair before taking her hand and standing up.  They stared at each other for a while, deep midnight blue regarding violet darkness in a moment of silent sadness shared before he leaned forward to hug the shorter girl.  She was already short for her age, it didn't help that Mamoru was one of the tallest boys of their age group as well.  It made her feel tiny, but she knew he needed to be reassured, so she did not fight it.

Besides, it was good to have friends, and Mamoru was Hotaru's only friend.  He had been, for a long time now.

She hoped they both did well on the exam.

----------

"Okay, here's my idea." A young man with long silver hair pulled back in a stylish ponytail with a length of white ribbon turned to his taller companion, a much taller boy with hair just as long, but in a shade of chocolate brown.  "We take a bucket of ice and pour it all over his bed.  That way, he'll pay for making us late when he goes to bed tonight and his bed is soaking wet."

"No, Yaten." The brunette answered, soft brown eyes turning to the watch on his wrist. "It's only half-past, we'll be fine."

"Yeah right, he won't be out of the bathroom until quarter-till, and then we'll have to run the whole way." Yaten Kou explained his reasoning.  "I say we leave without him."

"No, Yaten."  The taller boy answered again.  "He'll be out in a moment."

"Yeah right." Yaten snorted.  "You have _way_ too much faith in people, Taiki.  Especially people named Seiya Kou."

"I have faith in you as well, Yaten." Taiki replied quickly.  "Which is more ill-placed, do you think?"

"Hey, _I'm_ not the one making us late!" Yaten yelled out so that the third member of their party would hear his complaint.

"You are the one planning vengeful pranks, however." Taiki pointed out.  "And I had hoped you'd learn to be an adult before high school was upon us."

"What?  I'm still young." Yaten straightened, annoyed that he still wasn't nearly as tall as Taiki.  "I can play as many pranks as I want, especially if they're on _stupid slow-ass dorks!_"  
 he yelled out the last bit for Seiya, who suddenly came running into the room, blue eyes aglow with panic, black ponytail whipping out behind him.

"Okay, I'm ready!" he announced, and Yaten let out a rather long-suffering sigh.

"It's about freaking time." He gestured to the others.  "Come on, I'm not failing just because slow boy tried to sabotage my confidence by making me rush."

"Sabotage?  I just wanted to fix my hair!" Seiya protested as they all stepped out of the building and down to the sidewalk.

"How about you burn the wig, that'd be an improvement." Yaten suggested, tugging at Seiya's ponytail hard enough that the other boy yelped and began to attack Yaten, who darted around Taiki for cover.  Taiki let out a long sigh and looked to the sky.

_Why am I friends with these people?_

*****

The End (Of Part One, That Is)


	2. Loneliness and Friendship

Jade wants more!  She's on the rampage…no, not really, but I'll still deliver.  I'm nice like that.

*****

Pain Inside

Part 2

*****

The time was approximately five past noon on the same Saturday as we left our examinees last.  The setting was, of course, the examination center.  Technically, it was just outside of the examination center where many exhausted teenagers were reuniting with their friends or with waiting family members to spend the rest of their weekend worrying about how they did.  Actually, there was one girl who was all by herself, standing alone with her sad red eyes on the ground in front of her so that she would not have to see all of the groups of her peers, friends for years and years no doubt.  She had no friends, really.  She wondered what it was about her that had led to such a solitary life, driving away all potential companions.  Perhaps the proper way she spoke seemed a bit snooty.  Maybe they envied the rich red hair that marked her as undeniably different, a red that was only slightly darker than her matching eyes.  It could have been the cultured way she carried herself, her perfect posture, the ever-attentive way in which she watched the teacher at the front of the classroom.  Maybe they were bothered that she did not make any overt efforts at being friendly, feeling safer in books and studying and her own lonely thoughts.  If they would have looked closer, they would have learned that while she was indeed very intelligent, she was also a very warm and compassionate girl, a mature and thoughtful sort, though she was sadly shy in her own lack of confidence caused by the fact that she had no friends, that she never had any.  It was something she had to bear, being on the outside and still being utterly visible.  People stared at her as if to ask what she thought she was doing, living in their world without winning their approval.

She had borne this burden for nearly five years.  Kakyuu Hanagata could bear it forever, she was sure.  At one time, she had been sure the ache was too great.  Children are too cruel to ignore sometimes, and Kakyuu had been their target for a long time.  Now, though, she was sure.  She could start over, here, at Eien Academy.  It was a lower level school than what she knew she could qualify for, but she did not want to cause her mother financial strain.  She just hoped that her undoubtedly high scores would not cause her to be a target yet again.  This time, she wouldn't run.  This time, she would ignore it.  She was stronger now.  With her mother's love, she could do anything.  That was all she had.

It was all she needed.

She looked around her, letting her eyes drift from a group of five girls laughing and joking with each other, talking loudly about going for ice cream to reward themselves for sitting through the exam.  And there, just a bit to the left, she saw someone who looked to be as timid and alone as Kakyuu herself.  A short girl with a black bob and dark purple eyes scanning the crowd frantically.  But then, even she found someone, a taller boy who might have been a brother or a friend, it was hard to tell from the way they embraced when they reached each other.  They obviously cared for each other a great deal, though.  Kakyuu sighed, her eyes drifting now to a couple kissing discreetly, blushing and exchanging a quick account of how they each had done.  It took Kakyuu a full minute to realize that they were _both_ girls, as the blonde had seemed at first to just be a very pretty boy.  She smiled softly and let her eyes move to a group of four boys who were rowdily teasing each other and laughing loudly.  Finally, she saw a group of three boys who looked somehow…special to her.  Something about those three…maybe it was their long ponytails, shirking the social expectation of boys with short hair.  Maybe it was their perfectly appointed outfits, or the carefree way they stood and bantered with each other.  She felt like a part of her _knew_ those boys…wanted to be closer to them.  Without thinking, she stepped forward, and the one in the middle, the boy with black hair and dark blue eyes, looked up at her, his gaze piercing her so deeply she felt winded.  Shocked at her own foolishness, she blushed and turned to leave, keeping her pace slow so they would not know how embarrassed she was.

That was the trick, after all.  Never let them see inside.

It was stupid, anyway.  Why stare at the happiness she'd never know?

----------

"I can't _believe_ you fell asleep right in the middle of an exam!" Jadeite was nearly hysterical with laughter at Nephlyte's expense.  The brunette in question was flushing with embarrassment and anger at the same time, and he cut off his friend by smacking him sharply in the back of the head.

"I don't know what happened." He explained to his three friends as they turned away from the crowd to head for the train station so they could go home.  "I mean, I had a triple shot mocha!  How can anyone fall asleep with that much caffeine in their bodies?"

"Who knows?" Zoicite, his green eyes wide and sympathetic as ever, patted his friend's back as he pondered the question.  "Maybe the girl at the coffee shop got your order wrong."

"Yes, if it was decaf, that would make sense." Kunzite added his opinion.  "Although it would be a terrible mistake for her to make.  Do you think you'll still pass?"

"Well…I knew the answers to everything I got to before I passed out." Nephlyte shrugged.  "So I guess so.  Still…isn't it…a bit odd?"

"What?" Zoicite blinked at his friend again.

"Well, she didn't screw up your drinks, did she?" he asked the others, and all nodded except for Jadeite, who was still hooting and laughing at his friend.  "And then…look at Jadeite, have you ever seen him so happy after an exam?"

"I suppose not, it's almost like he was the time that…" Zoicite trailed off, his mouth forming an o as realization hit.  "Jadeite?"

"Ehehehe…ech, ahem, er, yeah?" Jadeite composed himself with some effort, and before Zoicite could ask the question, Nephlyte jumped in for the kill.

"You got me decaf, didn't you!" he accused, finger out and brown eyes flaming with righteous anger.  "Don't try to deny it!  Look at you…laughing…after an exam you no doubt _failed_!"

"It doesn't look very good." Kunzite considered.  "And you _did_ get the drinks."

"What?  I am _shocked_ that you gentlemen would suspect me of such flagrant _tampering_!  I would never do something so…so…" Jadeite searched for a word to fit what he was trying to describe, "So detrimental to your own possible future, as well as to our most _precious_ friendship!  Why would you even think I could?"

"Well," Nephlyte attempted not to laugh at Jadeite's attempted defense.  "Cause you're a dick."

"The man has a point, Jadeite." Zoicite agreed with a sharp nod.  "No offense meant, of course, but your record is not in your favor at this point."

"I would _never_ do something like that!" Jadeite protested, blue eyes as wide as he could force them to go.  "When have I ever been so cruel that you guys would suspect me of something like that at all?"

"Well, there was the time in middle school when you accidentally lit the teacher's office on fire with a cherry bomb and then tried to put the blame on me by planting fireworks in my knapsack." Zoicite recalled helpfully.

"Or the time you thought it would be funny to steal all my sister's underwear and plant them in Kunzite's room for me to find." Nephlyte added pointedly.

"Or the time that you hid that camera in Nephlyte's room and then played the audio of him jerking off on a continual loop in the cafeteria during lunch." Kunzite volunteered his own memory of past pranks.

"Hey, I could have shown the video." Jadeite shrugged, trying not to laugh at the fond memories of his own tricks gone perfectly to plan.

"Or the time you took a picture when Zoicite had to kiss Kunzite on a dare and then plastered copies all over the school." Nephlyte reminded them.

"Or the time you superglued the seat of Nephlyte's bike so that he had to get his mother to cut him off of it when he got home." Zoicite added another prank to the growing list.

"Or the time you doctored that phone conversation of ours so it sounded like Zoicite and I were having some illicit love affair and played it during the morning announcements over the speaker system." Kunzite added, his tone scolding.

"Hey, that was pure genius." Jadeite defended himself.  "You know how long it took for me to set that up just perfect?"

"The point is that our friendship has never protected us from your pranks in the past, and I have to say that any time something bad happens to one of us, we immediately suspect you." Nephlyte concluded.  "And we're usually right."

"Well," Jadeite sighed, knowing he was caught, but not really worried about it.  They'd try to get him back, but they had yet to succeed.  "I can't help it if you guys are so easy.  And you should know better than to accept coffee from me.  Remember the time I put Ex-lax in it and we had a test in gym that day?"

"I am quite sure _everyone_ remembers that, thanks for the lovely memory." Nephlyte ground out angrily.  "Although, I shouldn't be upset.  Even if I _did_ sleep through half the test, I must have gotten better than _you_."

"You see, Nephlyte, this is exactly the problem." Zoicite pointed out.  "If you wouldn't egg him on, he wouldn't feel he had to do things like this."

"I'm still going to kill him if I don't get into Eien." Nephlyte grumbled.  Jadeite attempted to look scared, but all he could do was smile.  With skills like his, who _needed_ school?

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"So, how do you think you did?" Minako's voice was weak, mournful, and relatively glum compared to how it had sounded before the exam.  "I think I'm failing out."

"You can't fail out until you get in, Minako." Ami pointed out helpfully, only to have the other girl groan in distress.

"Well then, if I get in, I'm failing after the first week." Minako surmised.  "Or at least after the first big exam."

"Not if you study!" Ami tried to be cheerful, but it did not seem to be working on her friends.

"I know I did badly." Makoto added her opinion.  "There were so many that I was unsure of…I felt so stupid."

"There were a few hard ones, but I didn't find it all _that_ bad." Rei told them.  "Come on, let's go to get some ice cream, we'll all feel better."

"Maybe there will be some cute boys in whatever loser stupid school I have to go to." Minako mourned, but Usagi seemed to brighten a bit at the prospect of food.

"Speaking of cute boys, I saw the Kous, together like always." Makoto spoke up again.  "Why didn't you say hello to Seiya, Usagi?"

"Well…I didn't want to tell you guys…" Usagi had been worrying at the hem of her shirt for some time, avoiding looking at them.  "But we broke up."

"You did?" Minako looked aghast.  "But he's so _cute_!"

"Yeah…well…it happened a few days ago, and I guess…I kinda hoped he'd change his mind.  Like it was a whim or something." Usagi admitted, feeling rather foolish.  "He said…he said we'd never get in the same class, since I'm not very…good at tests and all.  So he thought we'd never really see each other, so maybe we should just…just…" at this point, Usagi burst into tears, and her friends converged on her, all offering sympathy.

"Guys are asses." Rei was always very direct in her opinion.

"If he feels that way, he doesn't deserve you!" Makoto exclaimed.

"If I see him, I'll kick him!" Minako added.

"That sort of thing is utterly unacceptable!  You're better off without him, Usagi-chan." Ami put in her own feelings.

"Thanks…guys." Usagi was slow to recover, but she remembered something that cheered her slightly.  "So…about that ice cream?"

----------

"So you broke up with her?" Taiki frowned, obviously mulling over this news.  "That seems a bit immature, Seiya."

"Whatever, she was an idiot." Yaten clapped Seiya on the back, a wide grin splitting the shorter boy's face.  "It's the coolest thing Seiya's ever done, I'd say."

"Look, Yaten approves." Taiki pointed out.  "That should show you how mean it was, Seiya."

"Hey!" Yaten paused, feeling indignant for a moment.  "Well, whatever, book dork.  You know that _you_ were sick of Usagi and her tribe of twits.  If I had to hear that Minako girl flirt with me _one_ more time…I thought my head would explode.  That, or my IQ would start to drop to the point where she'd start to seem intelligent."

"You guys, I wasn't asking for your approval." Seiya told them finally.  "I did what I felt I should.  Look, we're going to be in high school now, and lets face the facts.  There are going to be a lot of new girls, older, hotter girls who are smarter and less…grating, if that can be the right word."

"Perfect word." Yaten approved Seiya's choice.

"So I just think that it's better for me to free myself up _now_ instead of letting it keep going, making her think that I'm really gonna stay with her forever." Seiya explained.  "She's nice and all, but I can really only take so much before she starts making me miss _Yaten_, so obviously, I need to break it off, and this was just a good time to do that."

"Can I ask you one thing?" Yaten was still grinning broadly, and Seiya nodded with a deep sigh.  "Did she cry?"

"Yaten!" Seiya smacked the other boy over the head, and Yaten darted to the other side of Taiki.

"What?  It's a perfectly legitimate question." Yaten told the other boy.  "Don't be such a dork all the time, Seiya."

"Whatever, ass." Seiya rolled his eyes.  "I just want to get home.  That test was really too long, and I'm tired."

"Yeah, it can be draining, realizing you're an idiot for two hours straight." Yaten spoke in his most serious tone.  "Let's get the boy home, Taiki."

*****

The End (Of Part 2) 


	3. Meetings and Dispersal

And we're back!  I feel like half my reviewers are people referred here by Jade, but that's fine.  We refer people all the time, because really, if people like one of us, they tend to like the other.  We just rule like that.  And now, to the story…

*****

Pain Inside

Part 3

*****

"Wake up, honey." The voice was soft as silk, and it took Haruka no time to recognize it.  Smiling, she reached out and tried to blindly pull the source of the voice to her, but only received an armful of clothing.  "Put those on, hurry, or you'll be late.  Your mom's got breakfast ready downstairs."  Haruka groaned and let her eyes open to the harsh light of day, filtered and softened only by the image of Michiru bending over her, a hand poised jus over her brow as she brushed back some of the half-sleeping girl's hair and kissed her brow.  Haruka took advantage of the moment to drop the school uniform and pull Michiru down even as the other girl feigned annoyance, ruined by a peal of perfect laughter.

"Let's skip school and stay here." Haruka kissed the corner of Michiru's lips as the girl put up a play struggle.  "We could spend the whole day in bed."

"Or, we could get up and brush our teeth because we have morning breath." Michiru suggested and the look of utter shock on Haruka's face told her that now was the time to escape, so she was soon on her feet again, tossing the clothes in Haruka's face.  "I'm going down for breakfast.  I'll see you in ten minutes."

"Yeah, yeah." Haruka clambered out of bed, which was enough progress to stop the aqua-haired girl from leaving.  "I'm just mad that I got separated from you."

"You're only one class below me, Ruka," Michiru offered consolation.  "We'll be right next door to each other."

"Can we skip class and go up to the roof, like we used to in middle school?" Haruka asked hopefully, and the other girl smiled warmly.

"Only if you brush your teeth first, honey." And then she blew Haruka a kiss and left her to get dressed on her own, in the boy's uniform she had had to order specially.  Haruka did _not_ wear skirts.  Ever.  Skirts were made for Michiru, not for Haruka, and that was the way things were.

"Stupid…exam." She grumbled.  "I hate class B already."

----------

"I don't want to hear you complain about it.  Class B isn't half as bad as being stuck in idiotic class D with Jadeite." Nephlyte was lecturing Kunzite as they stood at a corner with Zoicite, waiting for the predictably late fourth member of their group.  "I can't believe I'm judged to be on his level of intelligence."

"Just think of it like this." Kunzite shrugged.  "You didn't even finish half the test, and he did the entire thing, and he still didn't get any higher than you."

"Thanks, Mr. B Class.  I hate you." Nephlyte kicked at the ground grumpily.  "You too, Zoicite.  Stupid…top class…asshole."

"Just because Jadeite got the better of you again, that is no reason to call us poorly thought out names." Zoicite chided lightly as he tried to maintain the peace, a seemingly difficult task this particular morning.  Nephlyte was clearly on the verge of strangling anyone for any reason at all.  Kunzite was depressed at being in the class below Zoicite, and therefore all by himself, and thought that Nephlyte, who had placed in Jadeite's class, had no room to complain.  Zoicite just wanted them all to get to school in one piece, and did not see how he could be asking so very much of them.

"Shut up, smartie." Nephlyte grumbled for another moment and then huffed as he looked at his watch.  "He's gonna make us late, too, you realize?"

"If he does, let's tie him to the fence with his shoelaces during lunch." Kunzite suggested, sounding vaguely cheered by this idea.

"Can we do that anyway?" Nephlyte asked, face screwed up hopefully as Zoicite waved exaggeratedly at the just-spotted blonde racing toward them.

"Wow!  Running a little late, sorry guys!" Jadeite panted as he reached them.  "Ready for school?  Me neither!"

"I hate you." Nephlyte answered shortly, and Zoicite sighed heavily.

"What's wrong with him?" Jadeite wanted to know, and the shorter boy with the feminine features patted his oblivious friend on the back.

"Well, you could say that he's tired because he had to get up for school and then wait for you."  Zoicite suggested.  "Or you could say that he's not very excited to be starting high school off in the very bottom class.  I don't think he's quite gotten over the coffee incident."

"Damn straight he hasn't!" Nephlyte growled in anger.  "I'm gonna get you back _so_ good one of these days, Jadeite.  You just wait."

"Whatever, D-boy." Jadeite waved a hand carelessly.  "Like _that_ will ever happen."

"How can you tease him when you're in the bottom class too?" Zoicite wanted to know.  Jadeite shrugged and winked easily.  He was in a good mood today.  First day of high school, with all those hot new high school girls.  It would be great.

----------

"I'm serious, if you two can't stop complaining, I'll never walk with you to school again." Rei told Usagi and Minako, who were loudly bemoaning their fate at having to get up so incredibly early.

"I can't believe I'm in Class D…with them…ugh." Makoto whispered in a hushed voice to Ami, who was doing her very best to pretend she was fascinated with checking the contents of her bag one final time as they entered the school.  "I mean, I know I'm not as smart as you, Ami, but Class D?  I feel so stupid."

"No one will judge you, Makoto, we all passed the exam, at least." Ami assured her.  "It makes no difference where you're placed."

"That's easy for you to say.  You're in A." Makoto shook her head mournfully.

"You don't see Rei complaining." Ami pointed out,  "And she's in Class B."

"Like that's half as bad as D."  Makoto grumbled.  "But…at least I'm with two of my friends.  You guys have to be all alone."  Makoto grinned suddenly.  "Wow, I'm glad we talked about this, Ami!  I feel a lot better!"

"Glad I could help." Ami sighed and pursed her lips as she looked at the class signs above their heads.  "Girls, this is your class." She told Usagi and Minako who were trying to complain at a level Rei could not hear as well.  "Have a nice day!"

"Yeah, seeya around, Ami!" Usagi perked up slightly to hug Ami and Rei goodbye.  "We'll all eat lunch together, right?"

"Sure." Rei patted the girl's head like she was a child.  "Let's go, Ami."

"Are you worried, being in B without any of us?" Ami asked her friend.  "I would have preferred a class with at least one of you…"

"You'll be fine, Ami." Rei patted her back as they reached class B and stopped for a moment.  "Everyone likes you because you're nice and never complain like _some_ people.  Just be your sweet self and everything will be fine!  And, if they give you crap, just tell me and I'll get Makoto to beat them down for you."

"Thanks, Rei." Ami laughed slightly at that and left her friend to go a bit further down the hall, passing another pair of parting friends on her way to class A.

----------

"I should have studied harder.  I feel so stupid, and now we're going to be separated all year." Mamoru moped as he stood with Hotaru outside of class B.  "Think you can forgive me for leaving you to the wolves?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Mamoru.  I'm sure that there will be lots of nice people in both of our classes.  If they scored so high on the exam, they must understand the importance of studies, and must be intelligent, kind people, don't you think?" Hotaru opined hopefully.

"I think I'll miss you more than you'll miss me." He told her.  "I'm always such a drag these days, but you can always see the bright side of any situation.  I know everyone in your class will love you, Hotaru.  You're a great person."

"Don't get all mushy on me, we're only one classroom away from each other.  We'll still be able to eat lunch together, you know.  We'll see each other all the time." Hotaru assured him, but when he leaned forward to hug her, she held onto him tightly as well.

"I know, but you've been my best friend for so long.  My only friend, really.  Do you think it'll be okay?" he asked her, genuinely needing reassurance.

"It'll be fine.  Don't worry." She smiled softly, that kind smile that he had known so well for so long, and then she waved and left to make her way to class A.

----------

"Don't sit next to me if you're going to be fucking ogling every girl that walks in, dork." Yaten kicked Seiya, tilting his desk so that it fell over much to the amusement of most of the people already gathered in the room.  Taiki only sighed deeply, wondering how these two had both placed into the top class with him.

"I'm not ogling all of them." Seiya hissed as he righted his desk and glared at Yaten for kicking him and Taiki for not doing anything about it.  "Just that one over there.  See her?  The redhead?"

"She looks pretty shy." Yaten opined finally as he observed the quiet girl already sitting in the front row, biting at her lip while she read a book.  "Look, she's reading.  Looks like Taiki with boobs and nicer hair."

"My hair is fine." Taiki defended.  "And she looks like a nice enough girl to me."

"Of course, she's reading, so you _have_ to like her.  Why don't you go introduce Seiya to her?  You can be his translator.  Only you know both Idiot and Bookdork speak." Yaten was busy sketching on the front page of his notebook, a doodle of some cattails that had turned into a pond surrounded in fireflies he was making "shine" with a yellow highlighter.

"Why are you drawing that?  You'll have no space for notes." Taiki noted Yaten's picture.  "Though I do like that effect with the highlighter."

"Yeah, I know, it looks pretty cool how it's reflecting in the water, huh?" Yaten smiled proudly at his sketch.  "Notes are for losers, anyway.  Except you, Taiki.  You take excellent notes."

"He's only saying that so you'll let him copy yours at the end of the year." Seiya interpreted, and Taiki rolled his eyes.

"What are you going to do when you go to college, Yaten?" Taiki asked his friend.  "And I am in a completely different school, with completely different classes, and you are forced to take notes for yourself?"

"Get you to teach me how." Yaten shrugged, adding a crane to his picture as well.  "Or find a girl who wants my body and make her do it."

"Yaten, your self-assured nature is enough to frighten me, did you know that?" Taiki asked the other boy, and he smiled winningly.  "Don't give me that I-Want-Something look, Yaten.  It scares me even more, and you know it.  Just draw your picture."

"Psst, Seiya," Yaten poked his friend just as the teacher came in and was taking roll.  "Look at this frog."

"Yeah, it's nice." Seiya was trying to get a better view of the redhead, so he could learn her name when the teacher called it out.  "So what?"

"Look, it's you." Yaten indicated with his pencil.  "And I'm the crane.  I'm totally gonna take you down."

"What about the fireflies, dumbass?" Seiya wanted to know.  "What are those?"

"Fireflies, duh."  Yaten rolled his eyes.  "Oh, you missed it, teacher just called out your girlfriend's name."

"You two, be quiet before you get sent out." Taiki hushed them.

"Dammit…what was her name, did you hear it, Taiki?" Seiya hissed.

"Hanagata." The brunette answered in a hushed tone.  "Kakyuu Hanagata."

"Kakyuu…" Seiya considered this for a while before realizing the teacher was calling out his name, and he raised his hand while Yaten snickered beside him.  He could laugh if he wanted, but by the end of the week, Kakyuu Hanagata and him would be an item.  He was sure of it.

*****

The End (Of Part 3, That Is)


	4. Clubs and Fangirls

I best write another chapter before Jade's head explodes.

*****

Pain Inside

Part 4

*****

"Hey, I know I'm better than you, Nephy, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't make the team if you tried." Jadeite was escorting his friend to classroom B so that he could pick up Kunzite, who would accompany him to soccer club tryouts.  "Not everyone's as good as me."

"I just want to limit my exposure to you so I don't need to kill you by the time we've only had one month of classes." Nephlyte told his friend tersely as they reached their destination and watched from the doorway for their friend to finish gathering his things.  "I'll come and watch you, if only to pray that you make a fool of yourself, but I'm not really feeling the need to join any clubs this semester.  I just want to focus on my studies so that I can get out of stupid D Class."

"Hey, you took the test on your own." Jadeite teased him.  "I only gave you a little…you know, help." And he broke into raucous laughter, bending over and clutching his stomach as Nephlyte attempted to ignore him.  This effectively blocked the door, so that a girl with long, dark hair was momentarily trapped in the classroom, much to her apparent aggravation.

"Excuse me, boys?" she interrupted Jadeite's mirth, and when he caught sight of her, he stopped laughing so fast he almost choked.  "I would like to go home, please, if you'd let me through."

"Oh, well, excuse _me_." Jadeite was immediately the picture of amiability.  "I didn't mean to block your way, miss…"

"Hino." She looked rather annoyed, as Jadeite was still blocking her exit.  "Hino Rei, and I would like to leave now."

"Oh, yes, of course, Rei.  May I call you Rei?" Jadeite reached to take her hand in greeting.  "Akahito Jadeite, at your service."  He easily ignored the snorting laughter that Nephlyte was failing to hide at his sudden behavior.  Who would be laughing when he got this girl's phone number?

"You may call me Hino-san, Akahito-san." She told him sharply.  "Please let go of my hand so that I can go home.  I have better things to do with my time than to have a fool try to talk me up."

"Ouch, that one hurt." Nephlyte laughed as Jadeite let go of her hand and she marched off in obvious aggravation.  "Huh, Akahito-san?"

"Shut up, asshole." Jadeite rolled his eyes and waved a greeting at Kunzite, who had also witnessed the exchange, but was keeping surprisingly quiet about it.  "She can play hard to get if she wants, but she was totally checking me out.  I notice these things."

"I bet." Nephlyte told him before collapsing into a new fit of laughter.

----------

"Okay, see you guys later." Yaten waved at his friends before heading to the music room, where the first meeting of the choral club was to take place that day after class.  Seiya had, of course, commented on the girly nature of this club when Yaten had informed Taiki and him that he would be in it this year, but Yaten had cut him off with a criticism of soccer uniforms so biting and in depth that Seiya had yet to bring the subject up again.  Taiki would be heading for the first meeting of the literary criticism club, or as Yaten called it, "book dorks anonymous."  It was odd for them to be in separate clubs, but since they all met at the same time, it came down to personal preference, and Yaten felt that singing was far more bad ass than prancing around in short shorts or whining about books.

"Can I sit here?" a voice brought Yaten out of his reverie, and he looked up to see a blonde girl with bright cornflower eyes focused on him, her hands trembling slightly as she beamed at him nervously.

_Ugh, fangirls already, and it's only the first day._  Yaten sighed to himself.  _Why must I be so irresistible?_

"Must you?" he asked her right back, and her eyes went enormously wide, as though unsure what to say to that.  On his other side, a girl who had taken up the other empty chair without asking looked at him as though utterly shocked at his rudeness.  Like Yaten cared what they thought.

_I'm not here to make friends.  I'm just here to sing._  He chuckled slightly as the girl fled and found another empty seat across the room.  Yaten noted with some irritation that the girl beside him was shaking all over, like she might burst into tears.  _Girls are so girly._

"That was really mean." She finally spoke, and he turned in surprise.  She didn't seem to be scared of him.  On the contrary, she seemed to be restraining the urge to hit him as hard as she could, which, judging from her frail build and delicate voice, was really not very hard.  "She was just asking to sit down."

"So I should suffer?" he asked, immediately defensive.  Who was this girl?  She looked vaguely familiar.  Maybe she was in Class A with him.  He had been too busy mocking Seiya all day to notice many other classmates names and appearances.  "What are you, the morality police?"

"No, I just don't think it was nice of you to do that." She told him, her trembling subsiding somewhat, as it occurred to Yaten that her righteous anger was fading into something that resembled painful bashfulness.  "I mean…I guess I don't really know anything about it.  Do you know her?"

"No, but I know her type." Yaten answered, comfortably sure that he was cowing this girl into agreement purely using his good looks.  No girl could resist him, no matter how mean he was.  That was just the way it was for him.  "Seiya may go in for fanclubs, but I'm not here for that sort of thing.  I just like singing."

"Seiya…Kou?" she looked like she was searching through a mental database.  "With…dark hair?  Didn't you sit with him today in class?"

"So you are in A Class?" Yaten gave her a carefully measured Charming Smile.  To give such a shy girl the full strength smile would probably be too much, so he lowered the wattage to about sixty percent.  "I thought I recognized your face.  What was your name?"

"Oh…Tomoe…Tomoe Hotaru." She flushed, as though him asking her name was possibly the greatest compliment she had ever received.

"Well, Tomoe-san, my name is Kou Yaten." Yaten told her, enjoying the way her blush contrasted with the darkness of her hair and the pallor of the rest of her skin.  "Of no relation to that dark-haired dork-on Seiya, of course.  The name thing is just a coincidence.  Though we do tell people we're cousins sometimes just to mess with them."

"So, you two are friends, then?" Hotaru seemed a bit confused.

"Yeah, Taiki and Seiya and I met in preschool, and I've been stuck with them ever since." Yaten shrugged.  This girl…she was kind of cute when she crinkled her nose up like that and frowned so prettily.  Not that he really cared about things like that.  "So, you any good?" he indicated the front of the room where students were taking turns testing their ranges with the teacher plunking away at the piano as a guide and judge of their ability.

"Oh, no, I don't think I'm great." Hotaru blushed again.  "I really like to sing, but I think my voice is really…ordinary, you know?  Not like that." She indicated the current student, a girl with aqua hair and a gorgeous soprano tone.  "I can find the notes, though, I guess."

"Well, I hope you're good enough to stay in the choir." Yaten told her, upping the wattage of his smile slightly.  "I'd hate to lose the only girl in the room who probably hates me."

"I don't—" Hotaru went so flustered that Yaten burst out in laughter.

"Just kidding." He told her, and she bit her lip as though confused about whether to laugh or not.  "Good luck."

----------

"Aren't we in class together?" Ami looked up at the male voice, her eyes going wide and surely making her look silly.  She had thoroughly enjoyed the first meeting of the literary criticism club, and was a bit sad that none of her other friends had wanted to join it, as she was sure that they could all find entertainment from it as well.  However, Makoto was already in track, Minako was in choir, and Rei was too busy working at her grandfather's shrine for any extra clubs.  Usagi wasn't in any extracurricular activities, but she had assured Ami that she had a hard enough time scraping by in classes without extra responsibilities, so the blue-haired girl had dropped the discussion.  It would be nice to have this chance to make new friends, and this boy with the brown ponytail and soft brown eyes seemed nice and non-threatening to her.  So she smiled at him warmly and stuck out her hand with only the hint of a shy tremble.

"Mizuno Ami, Class A." she answered, "I believe we _are_ in the same class…"

"Kou Taiki." He supplied, noticing the searching look on her face.  "There are quite a few people from our class in this club.  Had you noticed?"

"Oh, I was not paying very close attention to the people here." She admitted, flushing slightly.  "I was just too enthralled in what Kokugaku-sensei was telling us we would be doing for the rest of the semester."

"I know what you mean." Another boy, who had heard part of their conversation, spoke up from where he was packing his things up next to Ami.  "I can hardly wait to read some of these books, though I have to admit, I've read half of them already."

"Me too." Taiki smiled.  "It's nice to meet people who read as much as I do." He told them both.  "What was your name, by the way?"

"Oh!  Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Aoseishi Zoicite." He bowed slightly, fumbling with the catch of his satchel.  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kou-san, Mizuno-san."

"You're in Class A as well, aren't you?" Ami asked politely, smiling invitingly at a girl across the room that was watching them as though she hoped to join their conversation, fingers worrying long, red hair.  Zoicite nodded, and Ami frowned slightly as she noticed that the girl had fled the room, apparently even shyer than Ami herself.  "We should all form a study group." She suggested, immediately feeling foolish.  "I mean…if you guys…wanted to study outside of class…I'm sure you already had other friends to study with."

"No, I mean, I do, but I think it would be great to study with people who actually _want_ to study." Taiki told her warmly.  "My friends can be a bit difficult."

"Mine too." Zoicite and Ami answered simultaneously, and they all broke into laughter.  Taiki sighed happily, leaving the room with the two people he had just met.  It looked like this year would go very well, indeed.

----------

Usagi had intended to spend her free hour when all of her friends were busy with various clubs watching cute boys try out for the soccer club.  However, when she discovered that Seiya Kou would be one of those cute boys, she promptly decided that her time would be better spent at the arcade where she had promised to meet Minako after she tried out for the choir.  Usagi might have enjoyed being in the choir as well, but she knew that her singing skills were about as good as her study skills.  Maybe that was why Seiya broke up with her.  She just didn't seem to be good at _anything_.  

_I bet he'll find a new girlfriend in no time.  He's good at everything he tries._ Usagi sighed mournfully as she entered the arcade and went to the counter, intent on purchasing a large chocolate milkshake in which she could drown her sorrows.  She was only halfway through it, still deep in despair, when a familiar voice brought her out of her self-induced pity party.

"Hey, save some for me, Usagi-chan." It was Rei, and unlike how she seemed to sound most of the time, the tone was kind, soft, understanding, sympathetic even.  Rei was truly a good friend, and she seemed able to understand everyone's feelings better than they could themselves.  "What's with the long face?"

"Hey, Rei." Usagi looked up at the clock in the back of the arcade.  "Done with your chores this early?"

"Just wait until we're fully in autumn and I have to sweep up dead leaves everyday." Rei's face twisted slightly at the reminder of her chores.  "No, it wasn't so bad today.  Grandpa did most everything before I got home."

"That's nice." Usagi sighed, taking another long sip of chocolatey comfort.

"It's Seiya, isn't it?" Rei asked without further attempts at small talk.  Usagi promptly burst into tears, letting Rei pull her over to cry on her shoulder so as to keep the scene at a minimum disturbance level.  "Usagi, I've said it once, and I'll say it again.  Boys suck."

"They're never mean to _you_, Rei." Usagi managed between sobs.  "What's wrong with me?"

"They don't _get_ the chance with me.  You know that." Rei smiled softly, patting her friend on the back as she attempted to clean her face up.  "Nothing's wrong with you, Usagi-chan.  You're a very good person, and the only one to blame here is Seiya, because he's _clearly_ an insensitive ass."

"You make everything sound so simple." Usagi sniffled, drinking some more of her shake.  "But…I was thinking earlier…you know, I'm not like…really good at anything.  I can't ever get good grades, and I can't sing like Mina-chan, or run like Mako-chan, or…or…anything!"

"You can do something, Usagi-chan." Rei assured her.  "You can care about people with your whole heart.  I wish _I_ could do that, but I'm just too much of a coward, to be honest with you.  I see boys, I think they're cute, or even sort of nice, and I am immediately in defensive bitch mode."  At this, Usagi broke into giggles, eliciting a smile from Rei at the sound of her friend's laughter.  "You know it's true.  You've seen it happen."

"Why…do you think Seiya left me?" Usagi wanted to know.  Rei breathed in deeply.  This was exactly why she never trusted guys.  Look what they _did_ to perfectly good girls!

"Because he's stupid." She answered simply.  "You know, he was really not a very nice guy, Usagi-chan.  You could do a lot better, I'm sure."

"Yeah…right." Usagi hiccupped, blushing at the compliment.  Just then, Makoto, Ami, and Rei entered, and Usagi waved at them all enthusiastically.  Minako almost ran to the table.

"You guys!  Kou Yaten is in choir with me!  He's _so_ hot!" she was in full fangirl mode, and Rei rolled her eyes in irritation.  "You remember him, right, Usagi?  Seiya and him were…oh…oh yeah." She cut herself off after seeing Rei's violent motions from behind Usagi's head.  Of course, it was too late, and Usagi promptly collapsed in tears again.

"Oh, Usagi, don't get upset." Makoto squeezed in next to Rei and the crying girl.  "I heard that today during soccer tryouts, some kid accidentally blocked the ball so that it hit Seiya in the head!"

"Really?" Usagi sounded vaguely interested.  Rei was trying to hide the fact that she was laughing.

"Yeah, I think he probably still made the team, but after that kid hit him, he was out cold.  They had to take him to the nurse." Makoto explained.  "I saw some of it from track tryouts."

"Oh!  That explains it, then." Ami's hand went to her mouth in surprise.  "I had forgotten…Seiya had a friend named Taiki, didn't he?"

"Duh, of course." Minako sounded insulted that Ami could forget something so important.  "The three Kous.  No relation, of course.  Except the fact that they're all hot!  Oh…sorry, Usagi-chan."

"Shut _up_, Minako." Rei glared at the girl.  She was _not_ helping.  "What were you saying, Ami?"

"Well, you see, Taiki is in Literary Criticism with me, as is another boy from Class A named Zoicite Aoseishi, which isn't really relevant to the story, except that the three of us were just leaving the classroom together, discussing the possibility of a study group." Ami explained.

"Booooring, Ami!  Only _you_ would talk to a Kou about _studying_!  No wonder you can't get a boyfriend." Minako rolled her eyes.

"You're one to talk, Minako." Rei shot back.  "Besides, Ami understands that there are things that are more important than chasing boys, unlike _some_ people at this table.  Continue, Ami."

"Uh, yes, well." Ami looked a bit nervous about the possibility that Rei and Minako might attack each other any moment, but continued her story nonetheless.  "We were walking down the hallway, when another boy, ran up.  I believe…oh yes, it all makes sense now.  Taiki called him Yaten, I think, which would correspond with what Minako was explaining to us before about…the three Kous…yes.  Well, anyway, he told Taiki to hurry up, that there was something wrong with Seiya, and then he ran off quite hurriedly.  Now I know what it was all about, but I hope that he is alright.  Seiya, I mean.  Not that I don't agree with Rei that it was utterly unfair of him to treat Usagi so callously, but I would not wish injury on him just because of some personal drama."

"You don't think he'll be disfigured, do you?" Minako asked, sounding halfway intrigued, and halfway worried.  Rei's glare ceased further commentary.

"I hope he is." The dark-haired girl effectively ended the conversation.

----------

"You two are here for the young Mr. Kou?" a young woman in a white nurse's jacket over a smartly matched blouse and slacks approached Taiki and Yaten, both of whom were a bit out of breath from running down to her office.

"Yes, is he okay?" Yaten asked first, his green eyes glistening with worry that rarely graced his expression.

"He's just fine.  Would you like to go see him first?" she asked the silver-haired boy, who nodded eagerly, immediately going through the door she indicated with one perfectly manicured hand.  She then turned her attention to the other boy.  "I'm sorry to make you wait, but he woke up almost as soon as he arrived here.  I only want to be sure he isn't concussed before sending him home."

"Oh, it's no trouble.  I would like to see him, but I feel better simply hearing from you that all is well." Taiki told her, only then realizing that he didn't know her name.  "Excuse me, I feel like an idiot.  I haven't even introduced myself properly.  My name is Kou Taiki."

"Oh?" she glanced at the closed door to the room holding Seiya before she asked.  "Are you related to him?"

"No, no, no relation.  Yaten's a Kou, as well.  It was actually what first brought us together.  Quite the coincidence, you know."  He realized that he _still_ didn't know her name and flushed lightly.  "Um, excuse me, what was your name, then?"

"Meioh Setsuna." She offered her hand.  "I'm pleased to meet you, Kou-san."

"Oh, you may call me Taiki." He told her, then flushed again.  "If that doesn't bother you.  It's just…I know you're a nurse, but you don't seem very much older than…er, I'm sorry."

"No, actually." She waved it off as if it was something she was extremely accustomed to.  "I'm not much older than you, really.  I just finished school last spring, but I am a bit young to have gotten so far, it seems.  I skipped a few grades here and there, and then I only took two years in college…well, what I mean to say is that I don't want you to feel uncomfortable around me.  I am only eighteen, you see, and it seems foolish to say that we could not be friends just because I'm a nurse and you're a student."

"Eighteen?" Taiki gulped slightly.  Why did he suddenly feel like he was doing something wrong?  "Wow, you really are young…I mean…no, you're still older than me, but what I meant…"

"It's alright." She smiled warmly at him.  "You don't need to apologize."

"Ah, yes." He flushed slightly, saved from further embarrassment by Yaten exiting Seiya's room, looking like the two of them had probably spent the entire time insulting each other.  Typical.  "Well, I'll go in then, shall I?" he turned to enter the room.

"Taiki-san?" she stopped him dead on his way to the room.  "You may call me Setsuna."

"Ah…yes." He fled into the room, knowing that he would never hear the end of this from the gleeful look on Yaten's face.

_Still, she seems like a nice person._

*****

The End (Of Part 4, That Is)


	5. Propositions and Rejections

Get ready for a new chapter.

Warnings:  Yaten.  Seiya's gonna turn on the charm.  That should be dangerous.  And scary.  Also, misuse of janitorial closets…yeah.

*****

Pain Inside

Part 5

*****

"What are you _doing_?" Nephlyte nagged his friend, who was darting out of the classroom during their current five minute break between subjects.  Of course, he didn't trust Jadeite to be innocently wandering the halls, so he followed.  "Whatever you have to say to Kunzite, it can wait until lunch, can't it?"

"Stupid Nephlyte, you don't really get these sort of things, do you?" he snorted.  "No wonder you can't get a girlfriend."

"What are you even…oh no." Nephlyte realized what Jadeite was up to just as they reached classroom B, but he was either too morbidly curious or too involved in the situation to leave Jadeite to his fate.  His fate was currently deeply in discussion on the other side of the room, not even noting his presence as she spoke to a boy with dark hair and darting, deep blue eyes.  "Look, she's busy.  Probably taken, even.  Just leave her alone, Jadeite."

"No way." Jadeite snorted, entering the room with a swagger that looked utterly ridiculous, at least, that was what Nephlyte decided.  Kunzite was looking at his friends with a curious, crystalline, grey gaze, but Nephlyte just made a gesture as if to wash his hands of the whole thing, and the eyes turned to Jadeite.  "Hey," he nodded as coolly as he could to Rei, who turned, blinked at him, and then turned back to the boy she was talking to.

"Poor Jadeite." Kunzite had just reached Nephlyte's side to hear the brunette's commentary.  "That girl's got it in for him, and he's too stubborn to even notice he's got no chance."

"Rei-san?" he tried again, and Nephlyte actually winced when the girl turned a full tilt glare on Jadeite's unprepared form.  "Hey, we met yesterday, remember?"

"I remember telling you that you could call me _Hino-san_, Akahito-san."  Rei's tone was sharp as it had been when Jadeite had last spoken with her.

"Oh, of course, R—Hino-san." Jadeite coughed slightly, apparently undeterred by her utter lack of kindness toward him.  "I was wondering…are you busy after school today?"

"I'm a shrine maiden.  I'm busy _every_ day after school.  I have work to do, you see." She told him, but he seemed not to notice that she was still rather irate.

"Really, a shrine maiden?  That's really cool.  I was just wondering, you know, if you had time before your chores…" Jadeite flashed her his infamous Ladykiller, a smile that had devastated most of the girls he'd gone to school with in middle school.  "I just made the soccer team, and I thought you might want to catch the practice."

"Wow, really?" Rei blinked at him, and Nephlyte was so worried that he actually stepped back.  "As tempted as I am to spend my valuable time watching a bunch of pubescent boys making some vague statement of masculinity by kicking balls around a field and sweating badly, I think I'll just skip it and go straight to my chores.  Maybe some other time, like when I've been lobotomized and find you to be something approaching charming."

"Ouch." Nephlyte winced, and Kunzite's wince was a clear agreement with this observation.  "Oh…dammit, Jadeite!  We need to go or we'll miss class!"

"So, I'll see you later?" Jadeite either did not notice how badly he had just been shot down or had the most amazing sense of dignity Nephlyte had ever seen.  Rei flipped him a rather rude gesture as Jadeite joined Nephlyte to return to their own classroom.  "See, Nephy?  Nothing to it!"

"Sure." Nephlyte had a hard time being mad at Jadeite and feeling bad for him all at once.

----------

"How's my hair?" Seiya asked Taiki and Yaten, eliciting a blank look from the first and a disgusted snort from the latter.

"Crappy as always." Yaten answered, and Seiya seemed to ignore it, standing and striding across the room to where Kakyuu was putting her things away now that classes had come to an end for the day.  "Oh my god, this is gonna be priceless."  Yaten moved forward to where he could appear to be casually standing aside, yet still overhear the conversation between Seiya and the subject of his recent heated stares.

"Hello." Seiya began, waving with two fingers in a manner that he found decidedly cool.  "What's that?" he pointed to one of her books at random, and she blinked at him, clearly terrified.

"Yaten," Taiki whispered from where he stood just behind his silver-haired friend.  "It is not nice to laugh at your friend's misfortunes."

"I know," Yaten was biting down on a knuckle, his eyes filled with tears already.  "But…it's so fun!"

"It's…um, a book." She finally answered, glancing up sharply as Yaten choked on his sudden burst of laughter.  Annoyed, Seiya tried to draw her attention back to him as quickly as possible.

"You read a lot, huh?" he asked, feeling a bit stupid.  Why couldn't he think of something _smart_ to say just now?  It might be because Yaten was only ten feet away, clearly laughing at his floundering conversation, but maybe he was just having an off day.  "So…do you do other things?"

"What do you mean?" Kakyuu seemed very suspicious of Seiya, so he decided to bring out his most brilliant smile.  No girl could resist the old Kou Seiya charm.

"I mean, do you go to the movies ever?" he asked.  She blinked great red eyes at him as though she didn't understand the question, and his smile faltered slightly.

"No." she answered.  "I don't really like the movies." She told him.  "Too many people."

"Oh…yeah, yeah, I agree completely." Seiya tried desperately not to hear the sound of Yaten laughing in near hysteria at his attempts.  "I would rather go do things that let me get to know a girl without outside distractions, you know?"

"Look…I have to go." She cut him off, her hands shaking as she crammed the last book in her satchel and slung it over her shoulder.  "I'll be late to Literary Criticism." And then she nearly flew out of the room.  Seiya turned aghast to Taiki, who was managing a straight face, and Yaten, who was doubled over a desk, tears rolling down his cheeks in his mirth.

"I hate you, Yaten." Seiya surmised before turning to Taiki.  "You didn't tell me she was in your book club!"

"I didn't see the point." Taiki admitted, lifting his own satchel.  "Speaking of Literary Criticism, I had better head that way before I'm missed."

"Hey, can you try and like, say some good stuff about me?" Seiya asked, calling after his friend.  "You know, drop a word or two?"

"Tell her he's a dumbass." Yaten supplied.  "Oh, wait, he already covered that."

"I hate you." Seiya sighed and turned to leave for soccer practice, splitting from his friends who were off to their own respective clubs.

----------

"Shush, they'll find us if you can't be quiet." One girl hushed the other as they slammed the janitor closet door shut behind them, the second girl giggling lightly as she pulled the first, taller girl to her, lips finding each other in the dark, cramped space.  "Mmm, Michiru."

"Hurry, I don't want to be late to choir." The shorter girl spoke as her girlfriend moved her mouth down over her throat, hands moving under her shirt with the ease borne of practice.  "Ooh, 'Ruka…"

"I love it when you call me that, babe." Haruka had pulled the girl's shirt up and was laving her chest in soft kisses.

"Did you set…your watch alarm?" Michiru's breath caught as Haruka focused on a spot that she knew was especially sensitive.  "Take your shirt off…"

"Mmm, five minutes, I didn't forget." Haruka pulled away to take her own top off, not bothering with the skirt Michiru was wearing since she could get her hands under it with no trouble anyway.  "So…how's classes?"

"Nice…I sit next to…ooh…a really sweet girl…" Michiru was working at the front of Haruka's pants frantically between kisses.  "Bit quiet, but…ah!  I think you'd like her…"

"What's her name?" Haruka paused her onslaught to go down on her knees, pulling Michiru's skirt and panties off easily as she lowered herself.

"Tomoe Hotaru." Michiru pursed her lips.  "Haruka, it's _my_ turn!  You can't always be the…ah!"

"Shush, they'll hear you outside." Haruka looked up for a moment.  "I like it better this way anyway."

"Mmm…okay…but when we get…ah…home, it's my turn…" Michiru bit her lip to quell further exclamations, though she wondered if the rustlings and other noises were audible out in the nearly deserted hallway.  Before soon, it was all over, as Haruka's watch beeped and both girls started dressing with amazing speed, patting each other down to be sure of neatness and hair before exchanging a quick kiss and darting off, Michiru to choral practice, and Haruka to track.

Somehow, Michiru found it three hundred times more exciting to have five minutes in a janitorial closet between class and extracurricular activities than to be safely in one of their rooms for hours.  Of course, what happened in the closet was mostly lust.  What happened at home was love, and both were integral to her relationship with Haruka.

----------

"Usagi!" Rei felt her face flush as she called ahead to her friend walking toward the arcade.  The pigtails stopped mid-bob and turned to greet her and her companion.  "Wait up!" she grabbed his hand in a moment of intense bravery and darted forward.  It had been nearly a week before she'd had the courage to ask Mamoru to go to the arcade with her after school, and only then had she been brave enough because of the fact that Usagi's presence could make it seem all so innocent and friendly.  She didn't want to frighten the sweet boy away.

_He is sweet.  Everything about him…he's so adorable!  So innocent that I actually feel like I can_ trust _him…I hope the girls like him!_  Rei was so excited that she had met a guy she didn't feel the need to attack viciously, that she could think only of how wonderful it would be if her friends all approved of him as well.  _As if they couldn't.  He's smart, gentle, shy, and completely adorable._

"Rei!" Usagi blinked wide blue eyes in surprise, the hint of a smile on her lips as she doubled back and met them halfway.  "Who's this?"

"This is Chiba Mamoru.  He's in Class B with me." Rei explained, "I thought he'd like to spend the afternoon with us, because he's not in any clubs, either, although his best friend is apparently in choir."

"Really?" Usagi tilted her head and held out her hand to greet him.  "Our friend Minako's in choir, too.  My name is Tsukino Usagi, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you." He took her hand and flushed at the warmth that swept over him as their eyes locked.  "Moon Bunny."

"Yeah, that's what it means." Rei looked a bit uncomfortable as the two continued to stare at each other as though caught in a trance.  "Let's get to the arcade, okay?"

"Sounds…nice." Usagi darted a glance at Mamoru and they both went bright red.

_Oh, perfect._ Rei rolled her eyes.  _Good job, Rei.  You managed to find the perfect man and hand him over to your best friend in one fell swoop.  Amazing skills._

----------

"You suck, Seiya." Yaten surmised as he sauntered into the nurse's office after his choral club had gotten out and Taiki had notified him that Seiya had fallen and sprained his wrist during practice.  "You were in here, what, two weeks ago?"

"Shut up, ass." Seiya had enjoyed Taiki's company much more, but the brunette had not seemed to like the epiphany that Seiya had had that afternoon while Nurse Meioh was binding his wrist.  However, he was sure that Yaten would see things his way.  "I got this idea."

"Oh, so that's what it was." Yaten immediately gave his friend a look of mock sympathy.  "You can't think and play at the same time, so you fell."

"No, _after_ I got hurt.  I was laying here, and I realized that if I want to get Kakyuu's attention," Seiya ignored Yaten's tired groan.  "I need her to see how cool I am."

"Well, that's never gonna happen, because you _aren't_ cool." Yaten assured him.

"No!  Just listen!" Seiya was getting rather impatient with his friend's humor.  "Look, if she sees me dating someone else, she'll realize how desirable I am, right?"

"Um…" Yaten was not sure how this logic was supposed to work, because it required him to think of Seiya as desirable, which simply did _not_ compute.

"So I can just get back together with Usagi for a week or so, and then when Kakyuu wants me, I can dump her and voila, new girlfriend!"  Seiya exclaimed happily, waiting for Yaten to agree with him.  Instead, the silver-haired boy exploded with laughter, and after nearly three minutes, regained his composure, wiped his eyes, and patted Seiya's shoulder.

"Man, I want you to promise me two things." Yaten told him sincerely.  "First, stop coming up with ridiculous plans.  The girl doesn't like you!  Move on.  Second, never use French again, or I'll have to send my apologies to the poor country."

"I hate you."

*****

The End (Of Part 5, That Is)


	6. Shakes and Games

Okay, I loved Jade's review. It was full of akugis for the chapter, and things like that _always_ make me feel like putting out (in a totally non-sexual way, thank you very much.) So here's the next bit!

Pain Inside

Part 6

"Must we carry on with this ridiculous plot?" Taiki sighed dramatically as he took up walking alongside a clearly cheerful Yaten and a very confident looking Seiya.

"I want to see her turn him down!" Yaten was almost _skipping_, which Taiki noted as a very un-Yaten-like behavior. "Maybe she'll slap him!"

"You know, Yaten, just because no one wants to date _you_ doesn't mean _I'm_ not in high demand." Seiya ran a hand through his hair, clearly trying to muss it just enough to make it seem he had just run in off the soccer field. He seemed to think it made him look much cooler.

"Yeah, well, clearly not as a babysitter, since you're a total pedophile." Yaten shot back, still gleeful at the impending idea of free entertainment. "Usagi looks like a twelve-year-old."

"She's our age, Yaten." Seiya clucked his tongue as though he found Yaten's behavior very immature. "And I have no intention of dating Usagi for real. I've been there, and it's not _that_ great. She's cute, but she's no Kakyuu."

"It is truly a proud day when our little Seiya starts wanting to date girls who have actually been through puberty." Yaten clasped his hands to his heart and Taiki wondered yet again why he was friends with these people.

"Taiki?" the soft voice caused the brunette to turn, already smiling as he recognized the girl behind them as Mizuno Ami. "Where are you off to?"

"Ami, these are my friends Seiya and Yaten." Taiki introduced politely, and was pleased that the boys seemed to leave their quarreling aside for the moment. "Seiya, Yaten, this is Mizuno Ami. She is in Literary Criticism with me."

"And Kakyuu?" Seiya blurted the name out immediately, and Yaten's polite face went immediately to a malicious grin.

"Don't mind Seiya, he's only just learned that girls are pretty, not stinky like he always used to think before." Yaten gave Ami a broad wink and Taiki let out a long-suffering sigh. "I think I've seen you before…Ami…" he mulled over the name as though trying to come up with a mental connection.

"She's in our class, Yaten." Taiki pointed out. "And she was in our middle school, as well. She is a friend of Tsukino-san's."

"Oh…her?" Yaten twisted a face of annoyance. "I don't really know about that bunch of banshees that follows Dumpling-Brains around, but if she's in our class, she can't be _that_ stupid. Although, Seiya got in. But I'm still pretty sure he did some _favors_ to earn that grade." Yaten made an extremely rude gesture that only lasted a few seconds before Seiya smacked him upside the back of his head and both boys immediately began to struggle with each other playfully as they walked.

"I am sorry. My friends mean…well, no, they usually _don't_ mean well, but at their very base, they _are_ decent people. These are the bonds we hold onto even when all common sense tells us severance is the wisest course of action." Taiki apologized to Ami, who giggled at his poetic lines.

"I think I can understand you, Taiki." She told him softly, her lips quirking in the slightest of smiles. "I was just heading to the arcade as I usually do after school to meet with my own friends, and I must say that while I love them all dearly, they are a rather interesting group of girls."

"We're going to the arcade as well, coincidentally." Taiki told her in a highly ironic tone. "Why don't you walk with us the rest of the way?"

"Don't mind if I do." Ami grinned, and Yaten rolled his eyes, although he had mentally decided that while Ami did not score high on his coolness meter, (only a four out of ten) she was also very low on the annoying as all hell meter, (at about two out of ten, only because she was clearly a dork and she was also friends with Tsukino Usagi who he found immensely irritating) and so he was not going to fight against having to walk with her. At least she wasn't trying to attack him like _some_ girls their age. And besides that, Seiya was about twenty seconds from making an utter ass of himself. Nothing could spoil a good mood caused by the assurance of such wonderful entertainment. "Actually, I needed to ask about the study group. Zoicite was wondering if we could meet on Thursday this week instead of Friday, as he has other obligations that evening."

"That should be perfect, as Seiya has a soccer match on Friday, and I really should offer my support there." Taiki nodded slightly.

"You just want to be there in case he gets injured again so you can have an excuse to take him to that hot nurse chick." Yaten teased, and Taiki flushed slightly in what he hoped appeared to be anger.

"Her _name_ is Meioh Setsuna, and that is not why I was intending to go. I support my friends as best I can in all of the activities they love. Do you think I will only attend your first concert if I think you might choke on your own tongue?" Taiki asked, clearly embarrassed.

"Yaten _would_ do something that stupid!" Seiya laughed raucously, glad that the insults had shifted to another target. "And then I'd have to help him, of course."

"Um, Seiya, I would rather you keep _away_ from my tongue if it's all the same to you." Yaten told the other boy pointedly. "I may be pretty, but I definitely have no interest in _that_ sort of thing. Save it for your boyfriend."

"My…dammit Yaten!" Taiki absently stuck out his arms to separate the two boys and then pointed at the building they had just reached.

"Enough, children. We're here." He told them as Ami raced ahead to greet her friends. Yaten recognized one of them immediately. Damn. It was the choir fan-girl.

"Wow! Yaten and all his friends!" Minako nearly tripped over herself racing to greet them. Yaten could feel his good mood dissolving rapidly as he was abandoned by Taiki, who went to continue his study-group discussion with Ami, and Seiya trailed off searching for Usagi, thus leaving him utterly alone with the fanatical blonde girl. "Do you come here often? Cause we come here like every day, and I'm sure that if you _did_ come here often I would have seen you, since, well, you know. You're kind of hard to miss."

"Yeah, unfortunately." He grumbled, trying to judge who the least annoying person in the arcade would be, was annoyed to find that it was Taiki, who was clearly busy with book-dork business, and settled for heading toward the front counter where it looked like a confrontation could be brewing if he was lucky. Of course, according to his opinion of the girl who had now attached herself to his arm, he was most definitely unlucky. But then again, it seemed that Usagi already had company, in the form of a dark-haired boy Yaten had never seen before. This could _definitely_ be good.

"Well, look who it is!" Seiya had switched into Suave Mode, a mode which Yaten found utterly hilarious. "Usagi-chan, you are definitely a sight for sore eyes."

"Back off, Kou-san." A dark haired girl with angry violet eyes was upon them at once, and she looked like she meant business. Yaten sat down and ordered a strawberry shake, ignoring Minako's blathering that was still going on to one side. "You've caused enough damage here, don't you think?"

"Who is this?" the boy who was next to Usagi addressed her, but as she was currently making a face like a fish gulping for air, it was necessary for her female defender, a girl Yaten thought was named Rei, to answer for her.

"This, Mamoru-san, is the utterly egotistical prick, Kou Seiya, at your service. Usagi and him dated last year. He dumped her recently so that he would be free to date high school girls. As you might surmise, he's a real catch." The sarcasm dripping off of every syllable had Yaten snorting into his shake, and Seiya flushing with anger.

"I don't see how any of this is _your_ business, Hino-san. I'm here to talk with Usagi. I've realized that she's the one for me, and I wanted to get back together." Seiya explained, his tone slipping toward angry and annoyed.

"Really?" Usagi squeaked in shock. Mamoru was clearly livid.

"I don't see what gives you the right to play with girls' hearts like that." He was on his feet right beside Rei, who gave him a satisfied smile of agreement. "Usagi-chan is a wonderful girl, not a doll that you can just cast aside when you're sick of playing games and then come back to later. She deserves someone who cares about her more than they do about themselves. Someone who can give her everything she deserves."

"What, someone like you?" Seiya snorted. "What was your name again?"

"Chiba Mamoru." He spoke through his slight blush.

"Well, Chiba-san, I suggest you peddle your second-rate wares _elsewhere_, as Usagi-chan is already spoken for. She's mine, so just back off."

"Makoto!" Rei could sense a fight about to explode, so she called for reinforcements. "We could use your help over here!"

"Playing Sailor V…just a minute…" Makoto was so engrossed in her game, Rei wondered if she had any idea what was going on at the moment. Yaten sighed as he decided that the coolness of watching Seiya flounder so helplessly was quickly being outweighed by Minako's ability to giggle far more than any human should even be capable of. He turned to her in irritation, thinking of what he could possibly say to chase her away.

"Yaten-kun, could I have a sip of your shake?" she batted her lashes and dissolved in giggles once more. Yaten's scowl deepened as he answered.

"I don't think so. Have you even had your shots?" Yaten was too distracted to notice that Usagi had decided to flee to Makoto's side, and Rei was now raining her man-hating vibes down on _him_ instead of Seiya.

"Can you stop picking on Minako? She's trying to be nice to you!" she scolded him, and he snorted in annoyance, turning in time to see that Mamoru and Seiya were silently glaring at each other and trying to stand closer to Usagi. Makoto looked annoyed.

"You guys, if you start fighting and ruin my chance at the high score, I will kick all of your asses." She told them matter-of-factly, but they seemed not to notice.

"Usagi, is Seiya annoying you? You can just tell him to go away, you know." Mamoru told her while still glaring at the boy opposite him.

"Are you kidding? I'm Kou _Seiya_. Girls would kill to get this close to me." He informed Mamoru helpfully.

"Not me, I think you're annoying as all hell." Makoto added her opinion, now that the building fight was occurring just at her side. Yaten was vaguely aware that Rei was still going on about the way to treat a woman properly, but he was sure what _he_ was watching was much more fun than all that.

"Seiya-kun…um…" Usagi was struggling, so Mamoru grabbed her hand gently, turning from Seiya finally as he spoke.

"Just tell him what you think. It's all right." He assured her, and she smiled lightly before Seiya wrenched Mamoru's hand away from her.

"Hey, hands off the merchandise, buddy." Seiya snapped, and Makoto let out a noise that her friends recognized as a warning sign.

"If you just called Usagi-chan merchandise, I will be kicking your ass as soon as I lose." She told him sharply.

"Did I ask for your opinion, Amazon?" Yaten snorted at Seiya's comment, but he kept it muffled with his shake.

"Don't call Makoto names! She knows Usagi a lot better than you do!" Mamoru defended the brunette who was clearly steaming.

"Like I care what you think. You're just some loser with a crush on my girlfriend. Get in line." Seiya seemed vastly pleased with this, but it caused Usagi to blubber his name several times before bursting into tears and running out. Yaten only barely restrained his laughter at this turn of events.

"That's it! You have no reason to treat her like that! Look what you did!" Mamoru was in a rage, and Rei finally seemed to pause in her totally ignored tirade.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it, then?" Seiya, clearly seeing that he was bigger and more athletic than Mamoru, was not at all afraid as Mamoru pulled back to hit him as hard as he could, but was dodged and instead received a sharp hit in the gut from Seiya, which floored him utterly. Yaten laughed out loud at this, but it was quiet enough that amongst the ensuing panic, no one seemed to notice. Minako had finally left his side, as had a very angry Rei.

"Mamoru!" the dark-haired girl was unsure whether to yell at Seiya or tend to the boy on the floor, but her decision was made when Makoto turned, tapped Seiya on the shoulder, and when he turned, hit him in the face so hard he crumpled to the floor. Yaten actually snorted his milkshake at this.

"Oh man, I'm _so_ glad I came!" he laughed hysterically, ignoring the disapproval aimed at him by Taiki, who was edging toward Seiya warily.

"I think…maybe we should make our exit now." He spoke, walking past Rei who was now down at Mamoru's side, biting her lip in worry as he sat up, panting in an effort to regain his breath. "It was nice talking with all of you. Ami, I will see you tomorrow, then."

"I hope…Seiya's…um, not too injured, I suppose." Ami was clearly confused about what she should say, as Makoto was glaring at everyone around her.

"He made me _lose_!" she cried out at the injustice of it all, cracking her knuckles in annoyance.

"Um, you guys…" the boy who worked behind the counter was making his way over, clearly afraid, but feeling it was time to interfere. "Could you…um…"

"Holy…my _face_!" Seiya had recovered slightly when Taiki reached down to help him up, but he was infuriated to realize his nose was bleeding freely. Yaten was still laughing, but he calmed himself long enough to set down his shake and stand, waving at all the chaotic mass around Mamoru and Seiya.

"Well, I have to say, it's been great, but we have to go. Makoto-san, you are definitely cool in my book. I'll catch you later." Yaten ignored the cursing issued from the bleeding boy beside him. "We have to get the loser home."

"Mamoru, are you all right?" Rei was still trying to help the winded boy up, and he brushed her aside impatiently as he finally reached his feet.

"Where's Usagi?" he asked, and at least three people pointed out the door, through which he immediately ran.

"You stay away from her!" Seiya's voice sounded rather odd as he clutched his nose and called after the long-gone Mamoru.

"Easy there, dork-boy." Yaten patted his back comfortingly as they still worked their way to the door slowly. "If you get blood on my shoes, I'll kill you, which shouldn't really be all that hard, considering you just got your ass kicked by a girl. Let's go before they all rip you apart." And with that, the Kou's exited the arcade, and the boy in his apron sighed sadly.

"Thanks…for not breaking anything." He managed finally.

"No problem, Motoki." Makoto waved and smiled at him as though she had done him a great favor. "Any time."

"Well…I hope Mamoru finds Usagi." Rei sighed in disappointment. She had well and truly lost him, though she'd never really had him to begin with. "Is anyone else hurt?"

"My knuckles are fine." Makoto offered.

"Yaten-kun is soooo cool!" Minako squealed dreamily, and Rei let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Minako-chan, please." She rubbed her temples slowly. "Do not make me hit you."

The End (Of Part 6, That Is)


	7. Kisses and Plots

Aaaaand, we're off!

Pain Inside

Part 7

"So…stupid…" Usagi snuffled slightly as she tried to regain her composure, walking shakily toward home.  "Stupid…Seiya…"

_Why couldn't I just tell him what I thought?  Why couldn't I save everyone else the trouble of defending me?  Why can't I do anything for myself?  Mamoru…he believed in me, but I just ran out and left him to deal with it.  What if he's hurt?  It'll be my fault…_

"Hey!" the voice made her whirl around where she stood, her face draining of blood as she thought, for one horrible moment that the dark haired boy that had chased her was the wrong one, the last one she wanted to see.  But it wasn't Seiya.  It was Mamoru trotting to catch up with her.  "Wait up!"

"Mamoru-san…" she didn't know what to say at first, and then when she got a good look at the bruise blooming across the side of his face.  "Seiya hit you…" she reached up and he shook his head, waving it off as nothing.

"No, well, I mean…yeah, he did." Mamoru admitted, flushing slightly as he remembered what a poor showing he'd made in that brief battle.  "But this is from the floor, when I went down.  He only hit me here." Mamoru indicated his stomach before adding on, "It doesn't really hurt anymore, so don't worry."

"He hit you!" she repeated the summary of events.  "I left and he hit you!  Because of me!  Because I was too stupid to just…just tell him…"

"Hey, no, Usagi, stop." Mamoru reached out to her and she nearly collapsed into his arms, sobbing against his chest in shame and bitter disgust with herself.  "Don't cry.  I hit him first, it's not your fault.  It's mine."

"You hit him…cause of me!" Usagi surmised brokenly.  "If I just…told him no…none of that would have…have happened."

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't even land the hit.  I did horrible." Mamoru flushed again in embarrassment.  "But Makoto slugged him pretty good after he called her Amazon.  She didn't like that very much, I guess.  Looked like she broke his nose."  He couldn't restrain his grin of triumph at this bit of news.

"Ma…Mako-chan too?  They were all fighting?" Usagi looked up, her face crinkling as she prepared to cry even harder than before.  Mamoru thought quickly, stumbling for the best thing to say so she wouldn't cry anymore.

"But…it's because we all care about you, Usagi-san!  You're our friend, and anyway, Makoto didn't get hurt at all.  I mean to say, Seiya did, definitely, but that was his own fault, really, and he shouldn't have provoked her…and us…and you…what I mean is that we all just want you to be happy." He tried again.  Usagi looked nearly as confused as his words sounded.  "I mean…that's what I want, for sure.  You really are…a great girl, Usagi-san."

"Do…did you mean that?  And all the stuff you said…before?" her eyes, wide and impossibly blue, looked up into his own midnight gaze imploringly.  She wanted something, but Mamoru had no idea what.

"Of course I meant it.  You're very…special to me, Usagi." He told her, his tone soft as he realized belatedly that he was actually holding this girl in his arms.  Granted, she had a face stained with tears, but she was still…so…so…

"Am I?" she asked, her tone and gaze the same intensity as before.  Mamoru nodded slightly, and she bit her lip as though making up her mind about something before going up on tiptoe and pressing her lips to his for the briefest of kisses.  Mamoru felt floored.  "I…really like you, Mamoru.  A lot."

"So do I…I mean, like you.  Not me, of course, that would be…but I mean, I do like me, just not like I like you…and…maybe I should shut up?" he finished, feeling extremely silly and somehow not really that worried about what anyone aside from Usagi might think of this.

"Maybe you should kiss me." She prompted, her lips trembling, and so he did.

----------

"It isn't broken, at least." Taiki sighed in relief as he dabbed cool water at the blood drying all over Seiya's face.

"Uch, that's cold." He moped.  Yaten was in the background, chewing on an apple and watching the proceedings with great amusement.

"If I use hot water it won't do anything for the swelling I am trying to prevent here." Taiki explained.  "Now hold still and I'll be done soon enough."

"Who taught you to do that, Taiki?" Yaten spoke up for the first time since Taiki had started cleaning Seiya up.  "Could it have been your girlfriend?"

"My…what are you even talking about?" Taiki's face was a deep crimson, and Yaten chuckled at the proof of his guilt.  "I don't have a girlfriend."

"The nurse, book-dork.  You remember her, I'm sure." Yaten licked a bit of juice off his thumb as he finished with the apple and tossed the core away neatly.  "She's the highlight of your week, whenever Seiya gets himself injured at soccer practice."

"I have no idea what you mean." Taiki demurred, face still red.  "Seiya, tilt your head up so I can reach this…there."

"So, what, do you two play doctor, or is that too predictable?" Yaten hooked his thumbs in his pockets, still watching Seiya squirm under Taiki's sure ministrations.  "I bet you've come across a lot of kinky stuff in your reading, Taiki.  One might say you were researching real-life issues all this time."

"I do not read about…and we never play games…not that I see her outside of the time we spend…spent…I mean, there is nothing between Miss Meioh and I.  I would thank you to drop the subject at once." Taiki scrubbed a bit too hard and Seiya yelped in pain.

"Am I really going to get swelling?" the dark-haired boy asked mournfully.

"You've already got great big bruises on both eyes." Yaten supplied his opinion helpfully.  "All that trouble and you didn't even get the girl.  Imagine that."

"Yaten, kindly do something _useful_ for once and fetch the steak I set out on the counter when we first arrived.  Seiya will need it for his eyes." Taiki's voice was a bit sharper than usual, and Yaten was so surprised that he forgot to insert a derisive comment into the exchange before rushing off for the steak.

"I feel like such an ass." Seiya groaned in annoyance.  "I'm going to look so stupid tomorrow in class."

"Perhaps this is what is called karmic retribution, Seiya.  You went to the arcade intent on using and destroying an innocent young girl in pursuit of your own ends, and not only did you fail in that mission, you walked away with two black eyes and a bloody nose.  Your shirt is ruined, I think." Taiki added, pointing to the blood spattering the front of Seiya's uniform.

"I don't really care about the shirt.  I can afford another." He sighed deeply and leaned back where he sat on the counter against the bathroom mirror.  "Thanks for cleaning me up, Taiki.  Sometimes I wish Yaten was more like you."

"I'm the voice of reason, Seiya.  You are the foolhardy leader, and Yaten is the comic sidekick." Taiki explained with a slight grin.  "It wouldn't work if he were like me."

"Don't let Yaten hear that." Seiya warned, and they both laughed briefly.  "But you know…even though he's an ass…Yaten is still there for me when I really need him.  Like…I know that when I get even with that Chiba jerk, he'll back me up."

"Seiya…" Taiki sighed wearily as Yaten returned and presented the steak with a long-suffering grimace.

"I know, voice of reason.  But don't worry.  It'll be fun, I swear." Seiya winked before wincing and accepting the steak, covering both eyes as Yaten shot Taiki a questioning look.  The taller boy just shrugged.  One day, he was sure his friends would grow up.  He'd like to witness that.

----------

"Are you sure you're all right?" Hotaru's wide, purple eyes narrowed as she grasped Mamoru's hand in concern while they stood outside of his classroom the next morning.  "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this last night." She eyed the ugly bruise on his left cheek warily.

"I guess I couldn't think about it." He admitted, smiling broadly as he had been since he'd dropped Usagi off at her home the afternoon before.  "I'm just…so excited for you and Usagi to meet.  I can't believe she _likes_ me, Hotaru…you'll love her, she's so wonderful…"

"Yes, you've told me nearly a hundred times.  I'm sure she is very nice, and it's no surprise she likes you.  Despite what you believe, you really are a very good person, Mamoru, and you are not at all unattractive.  Any girl with half a brain would be crazy not to like you." Hotaru brushed imaginary lint off his sleeves.  "Except me, because clearly, I'm as good as your sister.  Now be good, and no fighting today." She teased him with a wink and a smile, and he leaned down to hug her tightly.

"I'm so glad I have you to keep me out of trouble, Hotaru." He told her, only half-joking as he patted her hair down neatly.  "Now, hurry up and off to your smart class."

"Mamoru!" she flushed at his jibe, but let it slide, turning to go to class as he entered his own, and running right into Kou Seiya.  The blood left her face in a rush as she realized _this_ was the young man responsible for Mamoru's bruise.  But then she saw his face, and her eyebrows raised in surprise at the twin black eyes.  It seemed Mamoru had left out the bit of the story where Seiya got his.  "Sorry." She apologized without thinking, then flushed as red as she had been before as he smiled at her in a way that seemed somehow…not friendly.

"I know you, don't I?" he asked.  "You're in A Class with me, aren't you?"

"Um, well…yeah." She thought maybe she should lie, but she was horrible at that.  And really, what harm would there be in honesty?  "Tomoe Hotaru's my name."

"You're friends with Chiba-san?" he asked, and she darkened angrily at the tone in which he spoke of her friend.

"Yes.  I'm his best friend, in fact." She told him, a slight quaver to her voice.  She wished she weren't so bashful, especially at times like this.  "You should leave…him alone."

"Should I?" he laughed as though she had told a very good joke.  "You know, maybe I will.  Just for you, Tomoe-san."

"F…fine then." Hotaru had no idea what had just happened, so she decided rushing to class was really the best course of action.  Seiya was just behind her, which made her very nervous, but once they reached the room, he left to rejoin his two friends.  She sighed at her pointless fear and sat down at her seat, unaware of what was being discussed only a few seats away.

"Looking good, Seiya." Yaten teased, and the dark haired boy flashed him a rude gesture.

"Yaten, listen, I just thought of something we could do." He let his scowl dissolve into a devious grin.  "Something…to pass the time this year."

"Oh?" Yaten sounded interested at this.  "Got a prank in mind?"

"Not yet, but do you remember Umino-san?" Seiya asked, his tone still low.  Taiki was clearly ignoring them both, or at least attempting it rather admirably.  "In middle school, how we tormented him till he left the school altogether?"

"Oh…yeah!" Yaten laughed lightly.  "Oh man, remember when we switched his milk out with that rotten carton we'd been saving up?  The _look_ on his face…priceless."

"Well, I've got a new target in mind.  You up for it?" Seiya cocked an eyebrow, and Yaten shrugged slightly.

"Sure, who is it?" he asked, looking around for whoever he could see as the most annoying in the class.

"Tomoe Hotaru." Seiya answered, and Yaten hesitated as he pointed the girl out.  Of course, Yaten already knew who she was, but he feigned surprise.

"Her?  Why her?" Yaten tried to quell the rolling feeling of wrongness in his gut.  "She's not that much of a loser."

"Please.  Look at how many friends she has in here." Seiya swept an arm around.  "None.  She just sits there, reading, and she never answers questions in class.  Scared of the whole world, isn't she?"

"I don't think she is." Yaten opined, feeling embarrassed once he'd said it as Seiya's sight narrowed on him.  "I mean…I don't really know her, but she's in choir, and she talks in there…sometimes."

"Do you have a crush on her or something?" Seiya asked, his tone highly mocking.  "She looks like she's maybe ten years old."

"Of…course not!" Yaten forced a laugh which sounded rather harsh and then coughed slightly.  "I don't care if it's her.  Whatever."

"Fine.  Then we'll start tomorrow." Seiya nodded and sat, waiting for class to start and trying in vain to get the attention of the redhead sitting at the front of the class, just next to Hotaru.

Taiki noted that it all seemed very much like the calm before the storm, and once more wondered why he was friends with these _children_.

The End (Of Part 7, That Is)


	8. Milk and Planning

I feel like I'm being good now.  Updating, two weeks in a row…woo me.

Pain Inside

Part 8

"This is such a stupid idea." Yaten grumbled as he stood at the doorway of the girls' locker room dressed in his gym clothes and watching to see that no one was coming.  "Are you done yet?"

"No, and I won't be for a while.  I don't know which one is hers." Seiya hissed back in irritation.  "And if you think it's such a stupid idea, why don't _you_ think something up next time.  I think it's brilliant."

"Yeah, totally genius." Yaten rolled his eyes and checked his watch.  "If you get caught in there, you won't think it's so wonderful anymore, that's for damn sure."

"Then keep watch, stupid!" Seiya stuck his head out from behind a row of lockers to be sure Yaten was doing just that.  "Man, what's with you today?  You always loved doing this stuff last year."

"Well, maybe Taiki's right.  Maybe this stuff is too juvenile for us."  Yaten huffed, checking his watch yet again and fidgeting slightly.  "I mean, really.  Pour milk all over her clothes?  How is that supposed to be cool?"

"Think about it, Yaten." Seiya grumbled from where he was checking each locker in turn again.  "She'll get out of gym, and her uniform will be soaked.  Even if it dries, it will smell _disgusting_, cause duh, milk.  And I will have you remember, it's that nasty milk from the back of your fridge.  The stuff that expired weeks ago, and you haven't opened cause you're too afraid of how it'll smell.  So she'll have to wear her gym clothes all day, and either way, she'll smell _horrid_.  Not that it's much of a difference for a little freak like her."

"I don't think she smells that bad." Yaten mumbled from where he was standing.

"Did you just say something?" Seiya poked his head out again.

"No, nothing." Yaten felt his stomach clench slightly.  Why was this giving him so much trouble?  Seiya and him were born to play pranks like this.  It made life more colorful.  Was it because the target was a girl?  Maybe it seemed a little _too_ easy.  After all, she didn't seem like a very powerful opponent.  And why did he feel like ever since Seiya had suggested this, every time he saw her face, those purple eyes were accusing him?  Why did he even _care_ what color her eyes were?  "Are you done yet?"

"Calm down, princess.  I've just found her stuff."  There was a shuffling noise and his head appeared around the edge of the lockers again.  "Should I pour it on her books, too?"

"I don't know, that seems a little…" Yaten shook his head sharply and then bit his lip before answering.  "Sure, that'd be pretty funny."

"Yeah, I thought so!" Seiya let out a little laugh before disappearing again.  There were a few more shuffling sounds, the splashing noise of the milk being poured into the locker, and then Seiya reappeared, holding the empty carton and looking very triumphant.  "I did it!"

"Great, want a gold star?" Yaten punched his arm a little harder than usual.  "Throw that thing away or we'll get busted." He pointed at a nearby trash can, and Seiya tossed it from where he stood, also in his own gym clothes, doing a victory dance when it went in.  "Come on, spaz, we're already late, and the sooner we get there, the sooner Taiki will finish his Irresponsible Delinquency Speech."

"Wouldn't want to miss that, now would we?" Seiya punched Yaten's arm as well, and the shorter boy rolled his eyes.  This would all be very comfortable, usually.  But something just felt wrong, and he couldn't shake that feeling.  Maybe he was just experiencing preemptive annoyance at Taiki's imminent scolding, or maybe he was still irritated about Hotaru's eye color.  Stupid color, really.  Purple.  No wonder she was so quiet.  It couldn't really go very well with any sort of clothing decision.  Unless she wore black, he supposed.  But then, who'd want to wear black all the time?  And why was he so preoccupied with what color Hotaru would look best in?  She wouldn't look _that_ good, anyway.  Her skin was…clearly too pale, and her eyes were just too big.  And purple.  Purple was definitely a stupid color for eyes to be.

Clearly, he wasn't guilty at all.  He just found her whole existence so…grating.  That was all.  So it was a good thing they were pranking _her_, because if it was someone else, he might feel remotely bad.  And he certainly did not feel bad at all.  Certainly.

----------

"Looking _good_ Tomoe-san!" Seiya hooted after Hotaru as she made her way to choir, still in the gym clothes she'd been wearing all day.  When she had returned from the locker rooms nearly twenty minutes late, she was made to stand out in the hall for ten minutes as punishment, and when she returned, Seiya had loudly asked what it was that smelled like something died, while Hotaru had flushed deep red and nearly melted into her seat.  Yaten found himself secretly hoping she'd protest, or lodge a complaint, or do _something_, as she was so clearly upset by the whole thing, and she obviously guessed who the perpetrator had been.  He tried not to dwell on this very much, and convinced himself that he simply found people who were pacifists to be irritatingly stupid.  After all, how did they expect to be treated with anything resembling respect if they couldn't even speak up for themselves?  "Hope you don't have to sit with her in choir, Yaten." Seiya patted his friend's back sympathetically as he spoke loud enough for the retreating girl to hear.  "It should be bad enough just being in the same _room_." Laughing loudly, he turned to go to soccer practice, and Yaten idly wondered if his friend would trip over his own feet and manage another injury.  Surely Taiki could only hope for another chance to visit the nurse.

"Were you there?" Hotaru's voice snapped him out of his trance as he found her waiting for him just outside the entrance to the choir room.  Her eyes, still irritatingly large, still annoyingly purple, bored into his, and he felt sick to his stomach.  "Did you…I know you two are friends."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Yaten brushed past her and entered the choir room with her just behind him.

"I mean, someone, probably Seiya, snuck into the locker rooms just before gym and poured rotten milk all over my things.  He ruined my books!" Hotaru's voice was accusing, now.  "Were you helping him?  Were you there?  I know both of you were late to class.  I saw you come in."

"Well, Hotaru-san, I didn't know you cared." He offered her his best smile, but she did not seem flattered by it at all.  She only seemed angry.  "And besides all that, I don't know _who_ put milk on your things.  I was late because I went back to look for Seiya.  I noticed he wasn't around, and as you said, he is my friend.  Interrogation over?"

"It was him, though, wasn't it?" she asked, seemingly calmer now.  "I know it was Seiya."

"Okay, first of all, I don't see why you care about a bunch of stupid books." He ticked items off on his fingers.  "Second, you can just wash the clothes.  And third, why would Seiya want to do something stupid like that in the first place?"

"I don't know." Hotaru bit her lip and looked sufficiently guilty.  "I guess…it could have just been an accident or something.  Like, maybe someone had milk in there and when they tasted how rancid it was, they just, I don't know, threw it, and then maybe it got in my locker just by chance." She supposed, but she did not look very convinced by this scenario.

"See?  All this righteous anger over a little spilt milk.  Very unflattering, Hotaru-san." Yaten again tried the smile, and this time he received a small grin in return.  "Now, let's be good, attentive students for the poor choir teacher, alright?"

"Alright." Hotaru giggled slightly.

Yaten decided that he found her giggling even _more_ ridiculous and stupid sounding than regular girl giggling.  Or even Minako giggling.

"Hey, are you going to the soccer game on Friday?" he asked her, without thinking.  He immediately wanted to smack himself in the forehead.

"I…wasn't planning to." Hotaru flushed deeply, another action which Yaten was sure he found utterly annoying.  That was the only explanation for that weird clenching feeling in his chest.  Extreme annoyance.  "Why?  Are you going?"

"It should be pretty cool." He answered vaguely, and then kept his mouth shut before he put his foot in it any further than he already had.

----------

"This is without a doubt, your peak of idiocy." Nephlyte told his friend calmly as they stood outside Kunzite's classroom, waiting for him to emerge.  Well, that was part of the reason they were there.  Nephlyte's morbid curiosity was another.  That, and Jadeite's inability to understand when he was fighting a losing battle.

"Shut up, Dateless Boy." Jadeite hissed, ruffling his hand through his hair to give it a mussed look.  "How do I look?"

"Ready to be kicked." Nephlyte answered easily as Kunzite joined them, looking a bit surprised and curious at their presence.  "Hey, Jadeite's back for more."

"More?" Kunzite asked, but there was no time to explain, as Jadeite had suddenly moved to block the doorway, a sure signal that the target of his attentions had appeared.

"_You_?"  A highly annoyed female voice told them that Rei was on the other side of Jadeite, trapped in the classroom by his quick maneuver.  "Again?  What, did I wrong you in some former life, so you've come back to kill me with annoying masculinity?"

"Rei, I love it when you're angry.  It proves that you really _do_ care about me." He flashed her his most brilliant smile, and she rolled her eyes in irritation.

"Would you move?  And would you _stop_ calling me Rei?  I have _repeatedly_ asked you to refer to me as Hino-san, Akahito-san." She ordered him, and he only smiled in more brightly still.

"I came to ask if you're working tonight." He asked her, his confidence seemingly unaffected by her harsh tone.  "Because I thought you'd like to see the first soccer game.  It's a six, and I'll be playing, so you could come cheer for me."

"If I went to that stupid game, it would be to cheer for the opposite team, simply because it is the team that _you_ are not on.  Also, I would be hoping they might injure you.  Horribly."  Rei smiled at him darkly, and he backed up slightly.

"Well, I had a slight proposition, you know, to make things more interesting." He recovered almost immediately.  "You don't have to go to the game, but I think you might want to.  See, if we _lose_ the game, I'll agree to never bother you again."

"As if you'd hold to that." Rei looked rather intrigued, however.  Her hand stroked her chin thoughtfully before she spoke again.  "What if you guys win?"

"Then you have to agree to go on a date with me." Jadeite told her, feeling brilliantly skilled at improvising.  "Just one date, and I swear I'll be a perfect gentleman.  I'll even call you Hino-san.  Unless, you know, you change your mind about that one."  His stunning smile was slightly impaired as Nephlyte and Kunzite burst into barely muffled laughter, and he made a mental note to beat the stuffing out of them at the earliest possible opportunity.  Rei was still surveying him shrewdly, and seemed not to have noticed or cared about his friends' outburst.  Finally, she stuck her hand out.

"Okay, let's shake on it, then." She told him.  "And if you go back on your word, I'll get my friend Makoto to beat the crap out of you."

"Kino Makoto?" Nephlyte spoke up suddenly, and all eyes turned to him.  "Um, yeah, she's in our class…that is."

"Right." Jadeite chose to wait until Rei was gone to tease Nephlyte mercilessly.  "Okay, that sounds like a deal."  They shook hands, and then she brushed past him to go home and help her grandfather out.  Yes, she would definitely be going to that game tonight.  She wanted to be positive that he lost, and that she'd never have to put up with that arrogant smiling ass ever again.

----------

"So, could you, um, ask her…I mean, if you…yeah." Zoicite's face was completely scarlet as he hissed whispered requests to Taiki, who was sitting just between Ami and him that afternoon at Literary Criticism.  "Cause yeah."

"Fine, I'll do it." Taiki thought it was rather adorable the way that Zoicite pined after Ami, and Ami pined after Zoicite, and both were utterly unaware of the other's feelings.  He also found it vaguely annoying, and he wished they'd both just say something and be done with it.  "Ami, do you want to go to the soccer game tonight?"

"Oh…um, will Zoicite be…I mean, um, what time?" Ami flushed almost as deeply as Zoicite before coughing and straightening herself slightly.

"It's at six." Taiki told her.  "And yes, Zoicite will definitely be there.  He wanted to know if you'd sit next to him."  That was a lie, but Taiki figured that it wasn't _really_ a lie if Zoicite clearly wanted nothing more desperately than Ami sitting next to him for an entire soccer match.

"Oh!  Um…yes, sure." Ami went a deeper shade of red before they all returned their attention to the discussion.

----------

"So now we're _all_ going, so I wanted to know if _you_ wanted to come, too.  Because, well, you know." Usagi flushed as she curled the telephone cord around her finger and spoke into the receiver.  "And…if you wanted to bring your friend Hotaru, I'd love to meet her."

"Oh, yes, that sounds great." Mamoru answered her from his own phone.  "I'll call her just as soon as I get off the phone with you."

"So you'll be there then?" she squealed happily.  "At six?"

"Of course."

"And you'll bring her?"

"I'll try."

"Okay, I'll see you then!"

"See you."  There was a long breathy silence, before they both hung up, and Mamoru dialed Hotaru's number.  This would be a good chance to spend time with her, something he hadn't been doing much of lately, so he was very pleased when she answered the phone.

"Hello?" her tone was just as kind as ever, and he grinned as he answered it.

"Hey, Hotaru.  It's me, Mamoru."  He told her.  "Usagi's friends are going to the soccer match tonight.  Do you want to come and meet them?  Because they're all really hoping to meet you, I know."

"Oh…um, well, I suppose I could." She smiled as she answered, though he could not see it.  "I was just doing some laundry, but it should be done soon.  What time should I be there?"

"We're all meeting at six." He answered her.  "I'll be watching for you!"

"Okay, great."  She hung up, and her smile dropped away almost immediately.  She had thought about telling Mamoru about what happened to her at school, but it seemed stupid to ruin his good mood, so she thought maybe that wasn't the best idea.  After all, maybe it _had _been nothing more than an accident.

And at least it hadn't been Yaten.  She didn't think she could bear him being cruel to her.  Not when she was so sure that they were becoming friends.  She had very few friends.

The End (Of Part 8, That Is)


	9. Soccer and Salad

No, I'm not dead.  See?  Look at me updating.  I just have been very busy with social life and working and such.  So try to bear with me until I hit my stride or the summer ends.  Whichever comes first.

Pain Inside

Part 9

"Why do we have to attend this horrid event?" Haruka sighed melodramatically as she let an arm drape around Michiru's waist while they looked over the already-filling bleachers for an empty spot.

"I thought you loved sports, Haruka-san." Big red eyes turned on the blonde, innocent and clearly worried about forcing the young woman to accompany her to the match.  "You have always been very athletic.  I was surprised to hear cousin Michiru say that you were not on the soccer team at all."

"Haruka gave up soccer, Kakyuu." Michiru explained to the redhead.  "She decided that it wasn't for her."

"A sport at which you don't excel?" Kakyuu asked.  "Is that possible?"

"I used to play, when I was a kid." Haruka pointed out a few empty seats and they made their way toward them.  "But then I realized the fatal flaw to almost every team sport."

"What is that?" Kakyuu wanted to know, even though Michiru was shaking her head as though she had heard this story before and did not want it repeated to her cousin.

"Too many half naked men." Haruka explained with a broad grin.  "And _far_ too few women worth looking at.  So then I saw the infinite appeal of track."

"Haruka has a one track mind." Michiru giggled slightly as they sat down.  "And you know, she'd still play soccer just to know that all those women in the stands were cheering for _her_ as well, but for the fact that she got in serious trouble when she tried to take off _her_ shirt at the end of a certain match."

"I _had_ a sports bra on.  I don't see what the big issue was." Haruka rolled her eyes and Michiru tried to hide an amused grin.

"If I knew that you had such a sordid past with soccer…" Kakyuu sounded utterly devastated, but Michiru gave her a quick, one-armed hug and shot a look at Haruka before speaking to her cousin in comfort.

"Don't listen to all that.  She doesn't mind at all, do you, Haruka?" Michiru turned her full gaze on the sheepish blonde, who shook her head slightly.

"No, it's fine.  Actually, I'd kind of like to see…what kind of team we have, you know." Haruka invented quickly.  "Show some spirit and all that.  Was that why you wanted to come, Kakyuu?"

"Something like that." Kakyuu couldn't admit that she'd come to watch a sport she knew next to nothing about simply because Seiya Kou had told her in class that he'd really enjoy it if she came to see him.  He was…interesting.  She had yet to make up her mind concerning him.  She was afraid that maybe he was teasing her, as she'd never had a boy approach her before, so she was being rather cautious about the entire thing.

"Oh no, not _them._"  Haruka heaved a sigh heavier even than her earlier protest as she spotted two young men making their way up the stands.  "Look who it is, Michiru.  The Kou boys.  Their ringleader must be on the team.  I should have known."

"They aren't all bad, you know." Michiru told her patiently.  "Taiki seems rather nice to me.  And Yaten has yet to cause any disturbances in choir."

"Well, without Seiya, they're like a chicken with the head cut off, just running around aimlessly.  But when the fearless commander is with them, those three are nothing but trouble, I'm telling you." Haruka nodded to both girls as though this was important information they should keep close to them.  "I was in grade school with those brats, and I'm sure they haven't changed one bit."

"Honestly, Haruka, boys will be boys.  If they picked on a few kids back then, well then, let bygones be bygones.  I'm sure they've matured and seen the error of their ways by now." Michiru lectured her girlfriend, who snorted lightly.  "Don't listen, Kakyuu.  They're really normal boys, I'm sure."

"Well, they're in class with us…they seem okay." Kakyuu's composure abandoned her as she considered the possibility that Seiya Kou was really as horrid as Haruka was making him out to be.

"Haruka doesn't like them because they're so popular with the girls." Michiru explained.  "She wants a bigger fanclub, and they're stealing her crowd."

"That is not the issue, Michiru." Haruka sniffed primly before glaring at the boys seated a few rows in front of them in a large empty space with plenty of room on eith er side of them.  "They are not trustworthy boys, Kakyuu.  You can take my word on that."

"Oh, please." Michiru rolled her eyes.  "Stop trying to hit on my cousin, would you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

----------

"This is the best spot." Yaten insisted as he set down the jacket he brought in case of rain and sat on it rather than being directly seated on the cold metal bleachers.  "Look, do you see any people within ten feet?  No.  Very good spot."

"That's because of the soda all over the bench." Taiki indicated  the spill that did not reach quite to where Yaten and he were seated.  "You're such a sociopath sometimes, Yaten."

"I take offense to that." Yaten shot Taiki a sharp look as he opened the bag of supplies he had brought for the game.  "I hate people in general at any given time, not just sometimes, as you say."

"In any case, you aren't fit for polite society." Taiki eyed the contents of the bag.  "What, is there an entire meal in there?"

"For your information, yes.  I will not miss dinner just because Seiya likes chasing balls around and wants us to watch him do it." Yaten opened the bottle of water he had just pulled out of the bag and took a drink from it as Taiki considered this.

"There are vendors just down there." He pointed at the large stands below them, and Yaten snorted as though Taiki had just made a very poor joke.

"I am _not_ eating dirty vending food, thank you."  Yaten told him pointedly.  "I made a salad."

"Not one of your four hour unholy crusade salads?" Taiki shook his head slightly, and Yaten's back stiffened as though completely offended by this description.

"Good salads take time.  It isn't an…unholy crusade.  It's perfect."  Yaten pulled out the neatly sealed Tupperware bowl and opened it so that Taiki could admire his handiwork.  "Spinach, lettuce, green cabbage, just to start it off."

"Please, if you list the ingredients, it will wilt before you can eat it." Taiki told the young man, who resealed his bowl and frowned at the brunette for a few moments before speaking.

"You're in a mood tonight, aren't you?" Yaten asked.  "You're supposed to be the stupidly nice one.  What gives?"

"I know what you did today." He told the silver-haired boy.  "I know why Seiya and you were late to gym."

"Oh, that." Yaten snorted slightly.  "Don't get your panties in a twist, it wasn't like we killed a kitten or something.  Just a little milk."

"It was cruel." Taiki insisted.  "And do you want to know what bothers me most?  That you'd agree to do something like that to her, of all people."

"She's just a little book-dork loser with no friends." Yaten pouted.  "What makes her so special?"

"You tell me." Taiki answered cryptically.  Yaten was about to ask what _that_ was supposed to mean when he heard his name called out, turned, and saw her.  Hotaru Tomoe was rushing up the bleachers and waving at him happily.  He didn't realize he was smiling in return until he saw the way Taiki's eyebrow was raised, at which point he tried his best to return his face to a respectable Sneer of Disgust at All Existance.

"Yaten." Hotaru was apparently not the most physically fit of girls.  She seemed exhausted by her short run up the stairs, and Yaten wondered if she'd collapse or finish saying whatever she had to say first.  "I thought…you might be here.  Can we…sit here?"

"We?" Yaten asked suspiciously just as Taiki answered "yes" without notifying Yaten of the decision at all.

"I'm here…with some friends." Hotaru told him as she struggled to catch her breath.  "Not…really, actually.  I kind of just…met most of them…but my best friend is dating…one of them, and so…"

"Okay, sit down before you keel over." Yaten decided he was very irate about this whole arrangement.  Obviously.  He hated sitting with loser girls like this, but he couldn't just let her run off again, as she'd clearly die, and then her death would be on his head.  That was really the last bit of bad karma he needed.  "Next to me, there's soda all over the bench by Taiki."

"I wouldn't want to force you, Yaten, I can clean this up with some paper towels." Taiki gave Yaten a look that he supposed he was expected to translate into some sort of stern statement.  Probably he was doing something Taiki thought was wrong, as that was almost always the case with such unintelligible looks.

"Well, do that then."  Yaten shrugged as if he could care less.  Hotaru sat beside him, anyway, and Taiki let out a long-suffering sigh before leaving for the towels.

"Thanks…for letting me sit." Hotaru was not only out of breath, her cheeks were pink from her brief exertion, and Yaten found himself wondering if they were as chilly as the autumn air or warm to the touch, heated by the blood so clearly rushing through them.

"Whatever, I don't care." Yaten decided that he would turn his attention to his salad, as that was the only presence that he felt completely comfortable with at the moment.

"Great seats!" the voice was familiar, and it caused Yaten to nearly spill his salad in distress as he realized that for some horrible, unbelievable reason, the friends that Hotaru had brought to sit next to him were none other than the girls that followed Usagi Tsukino around, complete with that lapdog boy she had so quickly secured after being dumped by Seiya.  And of course, Minako Aino was there, rushing up to sit in Taiki's spot, clearly ecstatic at the chance to rub herself beside him.

"Please, no." he mumbled slightly.  Then, a bit louder.  "Taiki is sitting there already.  Move, as you're clearly too heavy for him to attempt lifting, and I doubt he'd enjoy a spot in your lap."

"Yaten!" the scolding sounded like it was in stereo as it was issued both by the dark-haired girl seated beside him and Rei Hino at exactly the same time.

"What?  He _was_ sitting there." He attempted his look of Utter Innocence with Rei, but as she was clearly not impressed, he turned it on Hotaru, who was still looking at him in vague annoyance.

"It's…okay, I can just move." Minako smiled brightly as though Yaten had not just insulted her, claiming the spot on Hotaru's other side, as it was clearly the closest she would get to Yaten.  The other girls filed past, all claiming spots, most of them far from the soda spill, except for Ami, who had decided to salvage a seat beside Taiki.

"Is that your dinner, Yaten-kun?" Minako was clearly making an effort to lean over Hotaru as though she were not blocking the blonde's access to her target, and it was obviously making the shy girl rather uncomfortable.  "That's so cool.  Did you make that salad?"

"Um, Minako-san, did you want to trade seats with me?" Hotaru did not see the look of glee that lit up Minako's face at this suggestion, because she was trapped by the look of utter horror on Yaten's own face.

"Hotaru was there first." Yaten spoke up quickly.  "So no." he leaned in and whispered in the dark-haired girl's ear.  "I really don't like her.  She's too…obsessive."  Hotaru looked completely uncomfortable, but she still gave him a slight nod before biting her lip and turning to face him again as Minako pouted.

"That is a really nice salad." She spoke up after a while, feeling utterly foolish, but also unable to think of anything better to say.  "Is that feta cheese?"

"Yeah, it is." Yaten looked utterly pleased at this correct identification, and so Hotaru persisted.

"Mushrooms…spinach…do you have two kinds of cabbage in there?" she asked him.

"I use the red cabbage for color.  Otherwise salads get monochrome very quickly." Yaten explained in a superior tone just as Taiki returned, greeting Ami.  "I don't mean to brag, but my salads are really the best."

"Stop being such an egotistical princess, Yaten." Taiki told him.  "No one cares about your salad but you."

"Hotaru likes it." Yaten defended.

"So do I!" Minako immediately leapt in, but Yaten clearly ignored her support of his creation, stabbing a forkful and eating it as though in mutinous answer to Taiki's criticism of his food.

"I see that I missed the beginning of the match." Taiki shifted subjects neatly, clearly not wanting an all-out argument in front of Ami and her friends.

"Oh, that's right, it just started." Ami seemed completely fidgety, and she was looking at everything but the field.  "But Zoicite…I haven't seen him yet.  You don't think he'd forget to come, do you?"

"He's just there." Taiki pointed down to where their friend was leading a brunette boy toward them, having just spotted Ami and Taiki himself.  "See?"

"Oh, good, I was so worried." Ami flushed and then covered her face, flushing deeper still.

"You!  You're that friend of his!" Rei's voice suddenly rose over the gentle chatter of the rest of her friends from where she was situated between Makoto and Usagi.  "I've seen you with him." She was pointing at Nephlyte in an angry, accusing fashion.

"Rei?" Minako was clearly perplexed.  "What are you even…"

"If you mean Jadeite Akahito, yes, I must apologize, we are friends." Nephlyte gave her a slight bow.  "But I think you should know that we're on your side in this case.  I would love to see one of Jadeite's plans come crashing down on him, and this seems the perfect chance."

"Oh…really?" Rei seemed struck by this answer, utterly lost as to how she should continue.  "Well, it's nice to meet you then…I suppose."

"Nephlyte Midoroshi, at your service." He gave her another slight bow and turned to address Zoicite, who had already left his side to sit next to Ami, where both seemed content to blush and refuse to meet eyes.  "And Zoicite Aoseishi, my other, less foolish friend has apparently abandoned me.  Would you mind if I sat here?"

"Um, no, not at all." Makoto answered for Rei, who was still rather confused about whether to kick this boy or not.  Before she knew what was happening, he was sitting next to her, and she was so flummoxed by this turn of events that she decided the best course of action was clearly to turn her attention to the game.

"Who's winning?" she asked after spending nearly five minutes trying to determine whether she could figure out what exactly all the kicking and yelling meant.  Nephlyte helpfully pointed to a scoreboard and spoke up once more.

"We're winning by two goals, which really means you're losing, I suppose." He told her in a voice that was pitched low enough so that only she could hear it, which she rather appreciated.  She did _not_ relish explaining her sudden urge for soccer viewing to her friends.  "Just watch the scoreboard, or if you can follow the game at all, our team is the blue and black guys.  The green and white team is the one you want to win."

"Thanks." She gave the word up grudgingly before turning her attention to the complicated workings of a sport she had never bothered to learn a thing about before this moment.

"Yaten, do you know the rules?" Hotaru spoke up after a time had passed.  "Since…you know, your friend plays."

"Seiya?" Yaten shook his head and laughed slightly, pausing his forkful of salad on it's way to his mouth.  "Yeah, he plays, but I don't really care about the rules.  I just want to see him get knocked on his ass."

"Don't listen to him, he's all bark." Taiki interrupted whatever astonished comment Hotaru was preparing.  "He actually does care for Seiya's welfare.  Yaten treats those he cares for most the least humanely."

"Well, he's nice enough to me." Hotaru replied after a pause for consideration.  "So then, do you hate me?"

"That's stupid.  Don't listen to Taiki.  He thinks he's smart, but he's full of it." Yaten stuffed the salad in his mouth and chewed irritably.

"Says the boy who eats homemade salad at a soccer match." Taiki sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Do _you_ know the rules, Taiki-san?" Hotaru asked him hopefully, and he gave her a measuring glance before answering.

"As far as I've gathered in my time attending Seiya's matches, the goal of soccer is for well-liked boys to run around in front of their adoring acolytes until the exertion heats them to the point that they must tear their shirts off, thus impressing girls with their finely toned soccer player physiques."  Taiki explained in a calm tone, uncaring of the way that Yaten was gaping at him all the while.  "Or perhaps I've missed the entire point, and that is really Seiya's personal goal."

"Whoa…Taiki…that's probably the funniest thing you've ever said!" Yaten managed to get the words out before breaking into unrestrained laughter.  Hotaru's brow furrowed as she watched this for a while before speaking up once more.

"You guys…are friends?" she asked finally.

"Yeah, of course." Yaten waved the inquiry away.  "Since we were kids.  We joke around sometimes, but we're close."

"Okay then." Hotaru decided that the game was far less confusing than the Kous, so she returned her attention to that.  It was easy to figure out which team they were supposed to cheer for, since any time the blue and black uniformed side got the ball in the net, everyone surrounding her cheered and jumped around in excitement.  After a while, she was even fairly sure she had spotted Seiya, who she couldn't decide if she should cheer for since he was Yaten's friend, or if she should root against him because of the milk incident, which she still suspected him of having involvement in.  Also, she was rather confused as to whether Yaten was being serious when he uttered hopes of Seiya breaking a leg or kicking the ball so hard it bounced back and broke his nose all throughout the game, or if he was truly just teasing.  She had been friends with Mamoru seemingly forever, and they never joked about the other getting horribly injured.  Maybe it was just different when it was two boys, and not a boy and a girl.  That could be it.

"I hate this game." Rei jumped up near the very end of the match and stormed away in a rage, causing everyone a good deal of confusion.

"But…aren't we winning?" Minako asked Hotaru after a while, and the girl could only shrug.  She felt like she couldn't be sure of anything anymore.  It was all rather aggravating, and she wondered where her simple life had gone, and when it would return.

The End (Of Part 9, That Is)


	10. Syrup and Misunderstandings

Sorry for the recent delay.  I was in a car crash and things have been pretty messed up because of it.

Pain Inside

Part 10

"You look pretty smug this morning." Yaten commented as he sat down next to Seiya in their classroom.  "I mean, sure, that was a good win on Friday, but you look like the cat that got the cream or something."

"That was a rather sharp observation, Yaten." Taiki commented, though it was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.  "Maybe he's been up to no good.  That seems to cheer you boys up noticeably."

"Oh, you'll see." Seiya's smile was so wide that Yaten immediately knew that some sort of prank was about to reach it's fruition.  "Should be an entertaining morning."

"What'd you do now?" Yaten hissed.  "And why'd you do it without me?"

"Well, now that you're such good pals with Hotaru, I thought you'd rather not help me with this morning's festivities." Reaching into his satchel, Seiya produced a small brown paper bag and handed it to the curious silver-haired boy.  "Look in there if you want to know what I did."

"What's…oh." Yaten discerned a half-empty bottle of syrup in the bag.  "Where did you put the rest of this?"

"I'm sure you can guess if you think very hard, Yaten." Taiki was clearly not pleased with them, as was evident in his tone.

"Why are you mad at _me_?  I didn't help him this time." Yaten wanted to know, and Taiki shook his head, pulling out a book.

"The key term there is _this_ time."  The brunette explained shortly just as the object of their conversation entered the classroom, wearing her newly cleaned uniform and carrying a bag of books.  Yaten wondered if they were the ones that had been covered in milk, or if she had been able to afford new volumes.  He didn't actually know how wealthy she was.  Seiya was trying not to laugh, so he knew that soon enough, he would see what had been done with the rest of the syrup.  Sure enough, Hotaru sat down, and almost immediately made a face of confusion while Seiya had to bite his hand to fight back the laughter.  Yaten was just starting to guess what was going on when the girl moved around in her seat, or at least attempted to.  It did not seem to want to let her move at all.  Making a short noise of exertion, she leapt from her seat, and seeing the trailing bits of syrup sticking to her clothes, gasped in disgust.

"Ugh, Tomoe-san, what's all over you?  You're supposed to do things like that in the bathroom." Seiya called out loudly, drawing all attention to the clearly upset girl, who went utterly pale, shot a look of hope toward Yaten, who was busy studying his hands, and ran out of the room so that she could no longer hear the laughter following her.

"It wasn't really funny." Yaten muttered in annoyance.  It had not been funny.  It was just stupid, and the only reason anyone was laughing was because Seiya was already so popular, and so whatever he thought was funny demanded laughter.  He looked around to see if everyone was part of his friend's flock of admirers and saw that predictably, Taiki was not entertained.  Other than that, there were a few others who seemed to be either annoyed or irritated by the display, including that Ami girl that Taiki liked to study with.  Another girl who was in choir, but whose name Yaten could not remember, seemed rather disapproving, and then there was Kakyuu.  She looked almost as though Seiya had pranked _her_, or maybe like her puppy had just died.  Well, at least Seiya would not get any gratification from his new crush due to his stupid antics.

"If you don't like it, tell him." Taiki hissed, and Yaten felt his face coloring for no apparent reason.

"What do I care what he does?" Yaten hissed back, annoyed that Taiki's moralistic speeches were actually bothering him for once.  "It's just some loser getting laughed at."

"Do you think I'm really that stupid?" Taiki wanted to know, and then suddenly, Seiya was between them, still clearly pleased with himself.

"See, Yaten?  It's funny." He patted the aggravated boy on the shoulder and then turned to Taiki.  "Don't mind him, he's always got to pretend he doesn't think it's funny so he can be our voice of reason, right Taiki?"

"I have no involvement in this nonsense." Taiki returned with a very annoyed voice.  Yaten thought it was very hypocritical that _he_ was supposed to tell Seiya that his pranks were not funny or cool, while Taiki totally removed himself from the situation.  If neither of them was doing anything, how was Taiki so much better than him?  And why should it be Yaten's place to speak up?  Seiya was being stupid, but he wouldn't listen if he was told so, and therefore it was better just to go along with him.

"I bet she's crying in the bathroom, or maybe she's off changing back into those gym clothes." Seiya seemed to think this was utterly hilarious, and Yaten noted with some sort of vindictive pleasure that Kakyuu was now actually glaring at the dark-haired soccer player.

"Hey, I don't think your girlfriend thought that was very cool." Yaten indicated the redhead, and Seiya fell silent as his gaze rose to meet hers, but she turned away, burying her nose in a book.

"She was looking over here?" he immediately began fussing with his hair, and Yaten utterly regretted saying anything.  "Did she look impressed?"

"No." Yaten answered shortly, but apparently Seiya did not believe him.

"I knew she'd notice me if I started this up." He was now straightening and preening like a peacock on display.  Yaten felt like vomiting.  "And I heard she was at the game on Friday.  She totally digs me."

"You are so delusional." Yaten snorted, ignoring the accusing gaze Taiki had leveled at him, and instead turning to doodle in the margins of his notebook.

----------

"Rei, are you all right?" Mamoru thought that it was probably his girlfriend's job to ask such questions, as it was _her_ best friend so clearly moping along beside them on their way to the arcade after school that day, but Usagi seemed not to notice her friend's state, and so he took it upon himself to inquire after her wellbeing.  "You seem a little down."

"I'm fine." She informed him in a voice that snapped so strongly with defensive anger that he determined immediately that not only was she clearly lying and obviously upset by something, but also that she was not going to tell him what it was, and that he did not want to attempt to find out again.

"Come on, Rei." Of course, Usagi seemed fearless when it came to such things.  "If something is bothering you, you can tell us.  Are we being too mushy?" she cuddled closer to Mamoru as though to illustrate her point, and Rei made a short noise of annoyance.

"You are definitely too mushy, but that's not what's bothering me." Rei sighed and turned a measuring gaze on both of them.  "I got myself into a bad position recently, and now I have to deal with it.  It's as simple as that."

"What kind of bad position?" Usagi released Mamoru slightly so that she could get a better look at Rei as they walked along.  "Is there something wrong at the temple?  Did you need to go home early?  Because you don't have to stay if you don't want."

"No, nothing like that." Rei shook her head vigorously.  "No, everything is fine at the temple right now.  It's just…well, you'll see soon enough."

"What do you mean?" Mamoru couldn't stop himself asking.  Rei was being rather cryptic.  "Are you in trouble at all?"

"Well…not really." Rei sighed deeply and stopped as the reached the arcade.  "I have a date."

"What?" Usagi squawked as Rei opened the door and nodded to a far table where a blonde boy was waiting, and shot her an extremely stunning smile when he saw her at the door.  "Rei…is that…Jadeite Akahito?  The soccer guy?"

"Yes, he plays soccer, but that's hardly the point." Rei rolled her eyes slightly.  "He's been…harassing me lately, and I agreed to a wager.  If his team lost on Friday, he'd leave me alone.  If they won, I'd go out on one date with him.  He's here to carry me off and claim his prize."

"Doesn't he have soccer practice right now?" Mamoru asked the first question he could think of, as about twenty were all swirling in his brain, and he thought half of them would end with him in extreme pain.

"Well, he told me some things are more _important_ than soccer." Rei's snort of disgust left no doubt as to what she thought of Jadeite's sincerity.  "So I'll be leaving you guys.  I'm sorry, just…don't worry, okay?  I have no reservations about kicking his ass."

"Rei!  You came!" Jadeite sounded so utterly pleased that Rei was a little surprised.  Usually he just sounded unbearably arrogant and smug.  "I don't believe I've met your friends."

"Please…" Rei looked as though she wanted to cram Jadeite into the nearest trash receptacle, but she overcame her urges and instead politely introduced him.  "This is my best friend Usagi, and her boyfriend Mamoru.  Usagi, Mamoru, this is the bane of my existence, Jadeite."

"You did really well on Friday!" Usagi chirped eagerly before intercepting a glare from Rei and stopping herself.  "I mean…um, just because you're a good soccer player doesn't mean you can mistreat Rei.  She'll hit you really hard."

"Wow, thanks for that, Usagi." Rei sighed deeply once more and waved to the couple.  "I'll see you lovebirds later."

"It was a pleasure to meet you both." Jadeite gave them each a short bow, which Mamoru returned jerkily before Rei snapped her fingers in the air in a beckoning gesture and began storming away down the sidewalk.  "Rei, please, wait for me."

"Hino-san." She hissed.  "I have _repeatedly_ requested that you address me as Hino-san.  And why did you insist on doing that?"

"What?" he blinked at her innocently and she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder toward the arcade.

"The polite gentleman act.  I already told them about you, so don't think you can win them over.  They're my friends, not yours." She lectured him.  "Now let's get a damn cup of coffee or whatever it is you insist on so that I can go home and forget the day I was tricked into going on a date with you."

"I will have you know that I am a complete gentleman, Hino-san." He informed her.  "Why, if it were raining right now, and we had to cross a deep puddle, and I had a cloak, I would sweep it off like so," he made a broad gesture, "so that you could cross without ruining your dainty shoes."

"Oh, piss off." Rei snorted.  "Don't pretend to be chivalrous.  I know you're an ass, and I personally like you better that way."

"So you _do_ like me!" Jadeite nearly danced, his smile covering his entire face.  "I knew it!"

"Would you stop?" she snapped at him.  "Where are we going?  I haven't got all day for this waste of time."

"Oh, this isn't our date." He informed her.  "This is just so we can calmly discuss what you might like to do while on our date, which will be taking place on Friday, since everyone knows that you can't have a really good date at the very beginning of the week.  This is only business, discussing the terms of my victory."

"What?" Rei stopped completely, and Jadeite had to turn around to rejoin her.  "This…isn't our date?"

"No, of course not." He shook his head and laughed as though the idea of a Monday date was a great joke.  "You thought it was?"

"Of course I did, or I wouldn't be here!" turning on her heel, Rei started right back toward the arcade with Jadeite right alongside her once he caught back up to her.  "You are such a bastard, trying to weasel out two dates instead of the one."

"I never did!" he protested.  "We can plan wherever you want, of course, but I just wanted to be sure we agreed on what was going to happen so there would be no misunderstandings."

"A little late for that, don't you think?" she asked him angrily.  "And for the record, I don't care _what_ happens on our date as long as it is short and painless."

"Are you officially forfeiting any say on what happens on our date?" Jadeite asked, his eyes lighting up in a way that gave Rei pause as she stood at the door of the arcade once more.

"Well…okay, come and tell me what you had in mind.  But then you leave.  And don't try to touch me or call me by my first name." she warned him.

"Of course not, Hino-san." He winked at her and produced a grin that would have put the Cheshire cat to shame.  "After all, am I not the perfect gentleman at all times?"

"I hate my life."

----------

"I hate my life." Hotaru sighed as she flopped back on her couch, listening to the washer droning in the background.  One day without having to severely wash her uniform would seem nice, she was sure.  She was positive now that Seiya was the one behind the attacks, but she couldn't prove it, and even if she could, there was nothing that would be done, she was sure.  He was the kind of student that got away with everything.  The very rich kind.

Of course, Hotaru was rather well to do, but she did not have parents as rich as Seiya Kou, she was positive.  Her mother was dead since almost before she could remember, and her father was a college professor who spent his off time researching and developing with the money he received in the form of grants.  She wished sometimes that her mother was still around to remind her father what it meant to be a human, to have emotions, to care for your daughter.  It wasn't that he didn't love her.  She was sure that he did.  He just never said it.  He never showed it.

It was a lonely life, and while she had grown used to it, she had also been Mamoru's best and only friend since they could barely walk, and now…and now…

Now he had a girlfriend, and while she seemed very nice, and Hotaru could tell he was happy, and was therefore pleased about it all, she still missed her friend.  She knew that he would not mind her tagging along with them, but it would somehow seem odd, being the third wheel to Mamoru and his girlfriend.

It made her wish she had someone special like that.  But she couldn't even go a week without having her uniform ruined, so the chances of a boy ever liking her seemed very slim indeed.  She wondered sometimes if she wanted to fit in, or if she just wanted to be loved.  She craved both, but she thought that she would rather have the latter than the former.  If she had to choose.  If she even had the choice.  Hotaru was beginning to believe that her life was only going to get worse.

And she couldn't tell Mamoru.  He was so happy.  She couldn't ruin that.  And she wasn't completely without comfort.  Yaten still seemed to treat her just the same, as if his best friend had not launched some horrible campaign of harassment against her for reasons she could hardly fathom.  Yaten seemed very mean and very cold, but it was odd the way some things appeared.  Seiya seemed very open and friendly, but in her experience, Yaten was the kinder of the two, and Seiya only used his friendly exterior to hide a viciousness that she was beginning to fear.

The only good thing that had happened recently had taken place that day in choir.  There had been auditions for the two lead solos of one of the songs they'd be performing in concert, and she had secured the alto part, much to her own surprise.  She was very happy that Yaten was the tenor, but she tried to pretend she did not care one way or the other.  If he thought she had some sort of feelings for him, he would no doubt treat her the way he treated poor Minako.

It was enough just to be his friend.

He was such a nice boy, really.  A very beautiful person that she felt privileged to know.  She wished she could be more like him.  He always said what he believed, and never let others overrule him without justification.  He had a strong will, and she admired that.

Yes, Yaten was like a light in the darkness for her.

The End (Of Part 10, That Is)


	11. Piano and Pizza

My mom's coming to visit for the weekend, so I have to clean the bathroom since no one else is apparently able to care or to clean it, and I don't want her to think we're living in squalor. But first I'll write an update!

Pain Inside

Part 11

"So in this arrangement, the choir is really just our backup. They sing the chorus with us, and then they fill in the background as we sing our solos." Yaten was explaining his understanding of the piece to a rather listless Hotaru. "Here, here, and here." He flipped through the book of music pointing out their parts. "You sing this first one alone, then it's my turn, and then we sing the last one together, but we always sing the chorus and this last line together."

"Yeah." She answered after a long pause, not looking as though she'd heard a word of his explanation.

"Hotaru, I know you already know this." He pursed his lips, thoroughly annoyed. They were to practice alone, singing through their parts at least two or three times every afternoon after regular choral practice ended. If she would not listen to him, he'd be there past dinnertime. And then he would get very angry. "You are perfectly capable of reading music. So what's the deal? Why are you so distracted?"

"Oh…nothing, I'm sorry." She shook her head swiftly as though snapping back into reality at his prompting. "I just…well, this afternoon, when I went to get my stuff out of my locker, someone had taken my things, and my locker was full of garbage." She looked very near to bursting into tears, and Yaten felt the heat of guilt and discomfort come over him in a sickly wave.

"Really?" he gulped, putting on his most innocent face. Sure, he'd helped remove Hotaru's possessions from her locker, but he'd hid them somewhere safe so that later he could replace them. "Wow, that's too bad. Any idea what happened to your things?"

"I don't know. Maybe you could ask your friend for me." She sighed, not sounding the least bit angry. It was clear that Hotaru was wearing down under the pressure, not only of studying and singing, but also of dealing with Seiya's daily pranks. "I'm sorry…I know it isn't you doing it. I just wish I knew why he picked me. I wish I knew what I did to make him so angry." She sighed deeply, looking extremely dejected for a few moments before she slapped on an utterly fake smile and faced Yaten again. "But never mind things like that. I suppose we should get to work on the song, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah, you're right." Yaten felt like he would be sick. Why did he even care, though? Hotaru was a nice girl, sure, but he was mean to a lot of nice people without caring one way or the other. "Even if it is Seiya, I'm sure he'll stop pretty soon, once he finds a way to distract himself." Yaten tried to think of what might distract Seiya from Hotaru, and he saw a pare of violently red eyes, pale skin framed by equally red hair. What was that girl's name again? Kakyuu? If only she'd start dating Seiya, maybe the dark-haired boy would forget about the "fun" of pranking Hotaru every day. Maybe.

"That would be nice. I'm sure…I mean, he'd never do it to you, since you guys are friends." Hotaru shuffled her feet slightly as she drew imaginary shapes on the piano with her fingers. "But I'm sure that if you were in my shoes, you wouldn't even care. You'd probably…fight back or something. That's why I like you, Yaten. You never do something just because it's expected of you." She blushed deep red then, as if speaking so frankly was an utterly embarrassing experience, and Yaten felt his own cheeks coloring slightly, so he sat down at the piano bench and busied himself by positioning the book of music and then resting his fingers on the keys.

"Well…let's get started, shall we?" he prompted her and she gave him another smile, but this one was real. He momentarily forgot how to breathe and subsequently decided that he should stare at the music rather than looking at Hotaru and forgetting what he was supposed to be doing. He pretended he did not feel her sit down next to him, her eyes on the music, the gentle lilac scent of her wafting into his awareness.

"Are you going to start?" she asked, and he realized he'd been sitting without doing anything for nearly five minutes straight since she sat down.

"Oh…yes, that's right. I was just thinking." He cleared his throat and gave her the most serious, business-like face he could muster. "Do you want me to play the melody for you first, or do you want to try and sing the notes from memory…and um…the music written here?" Yaten could hear a voice in his head repeatedly chanting stupid. He thought the voice would be more useful if it would have told him what to say in the first place, so it had no room to talk.

"I think I'll be able to remember how it goes." She offered him a slight smile and he blinked at her before turning back to the sheet music and playing the first few notes. This was going to be a long afternoon, he could feel it.

----------

"I'm going out, Grandpa. I'll be back before ten." Rei told her grandfather as she stood, dressed in a simple black skirt and blouse, clutching her purse nervously as he looked her over.

"Oh, Rei, you can stay out later than that." He assured her, smiling so that his eyes seemed to disappear in the wrinkles of his cheeks. "How about…midnight?"

"Grandpa! You're supposed to be worried! I'm going out with a boy." She told him, pouting so that he might change the curfew back to the one she had come up with.

"Well then! Is he here to pick you up? I want to meet him!" the little old man stood from where he'd been steaming some rice for dinner, making his way over to his granddaughter and ushering her out of the kitchen of the shrine they lived in.

"Yes…" she felt like crying. Of course her grandfather would be impressed by Jadeite. Everyone was, because they didn't know what sort of boy he really was, but Rei was not fooled by his act. Apparently she was the only one. All day Usagi had impressed the rest of the girls with stories of how cordial and gentlemanly he had been when they met, and thereafter, she had received absolutely no sympathy about having a date with him that night. In fact, Minako had told her to stop bragging about it. As if she was proud! "He said he'd wait for me at the gates." She let her grandfather follow her the whole way, feeling like he was a guard marching her toward a slow and painful execution.

"Hino-san." Jadeite, as promised, was acting the perfect gentleman. At least he was now, probably since he had seen her approaching with her grandfather. "This must be your grandfather. Good evening, sir. Hino-san often speaks of you." And of course, he dipped into a polite bow before offering his hand. Rei wished she had a knife in her handbag.

"Yes, well, we're very close." He assured Jadeite, readily shaking the hand that the young man offered, his smile wide and excited. "Which is why I'm so glad she's finally taking an interest in boys. I don't believe my Rei has ever gone out on a date before."

"Grandpa, shush." Rei felt herself flushing in embarrassment as she tried to pretend she couldn't feel Jadeite's eyes on her, as if she couldn't imagine the look on his face. "Now, you've met, so can we go?"

"I haven't been properly introduced." Her grandfather insisted, and after letting out a long-suffering sigh, Rei humored him.

"Grandfather, this is Jadeite Akahito. He goes to my school in the very bottom class. He might do better on his schoolwork, but all he cares about is soccer and chasing girls, so that doesn't leave a lot of room for outside studying." Rei turned to Jadeite, who seemed completely unfazed by her recital. "Akahito-san, this is my grandfather. He loves me and is very protective of me, and while he seems fragile, along with his many spiritual trainings, he also studies martial arts."

"Martial arts? Really?" Jadeite appeared impressed rather than frightened, which annoyed Rei utterly. "I've always had an interest in learning a bit about spirituality and self defense. Perhaps that was what drew me to Rei, who is so clearly spiritually aware, far beyond ordinary girls."

"Yes, Rei is a very great asset to the shrine." Her grandfather seemed content to waste the night away talking to Jadeite, which seemed a lot like prolonging the torture to Rei herself. "Of course, there is always a lot of work to do around here, but with her, we just manage. Sometimes I think it would be better for me to hire an assistant so she could be more free to spend time with her friends…"

"Don't be silly, Grandpa. I love working on the shrine." She assured him in a voice tempered by the company they were currently sharing. "Now, can we leave?"

"Hino-san is quite eager, it seems." Jadeite looked so smug, she wanted to slap the look right off his face. "I had best not keep her waiting. It was a pleasure to meet you, Grandfather. What time should I have her back?"

"Ten." Rei interjected.

"One is fine." Her grandfather overruled her, and she let out a deep sigh. Whose side was he _on_, anyway? "You two just have fun."

"Thank you very much, we will." Jadeite gave another bow, and then offered his arm to Rei, who ignored it completely and rushed through the gates, not wanting to say anything to anger her grandfather when she knew that the person she really felt frustrated with was Jadeite. "Hino-san! Please wait for me!"

"Nice performance." She spoke once she heard him catch up to her, no longer offering the arm he knew she would not take if her life depended on it. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a respectable young man."

"Look, Hino-san." Jadeite's tone sounded a bit annoyed, which Rei found intriguing. "I know that you don't like me. I don't know _why_ you've decided that I'm the worst guy in the world, but I'm really trying to make it up to you here, and you're not giving me half a chance! Now, with most girls, if I was having trouble, I'd just charm their socks off, get in one or two good nights of fun, and then ignore them so that they could become obsessed with me and follow me around and let me get away with anything, because I would be so annoyed with their bad attitudes from the beginning that it would seem like they deserved it. But I'm not going to do that with you. I like you a lot, Hino-san."

"Thanks, your honesty is touching." She sneered, but he plowed right on.

"A lot of girls pretend to have a backbone just to pique guys' interests, but you really don't put up with any of my shit. I have to say, it pisses me off a little bit. But mostly it makes me want to get you to change your mind about me. And I know I can." He assured her.

"After all that, I'm never going to trust you, stupid." Rei assured him. "You just verified my suspicions that you treat girls like shit."

"Only the girls I don't like." Jadeite told her. "And anyway, try to tell me you don't treat most guys like they're subhuman." There was a long silence as Rei refused to answer. "See? We aren't really that different if you think about it."

"Wow, that is so insightful." Rei blinked at him in mock amazement. "Now that you've romanced me with your utter lack of decency, can we call this date over with and take me home?"

"We haven't even started yet." He ignored her snappish comment yet again, apparently no longer in the mood for a good fight, which Rei thought was really too bad, as he seemed like he might be good for such things. "We're going to eat at this great place, you'll love it. It's pretty close by, so don't worry if you're getting hungry."

"Whatever, as long as you're paying for this ridiculousness, I could care less where we eat." Rei rolled her eyes and followed his lead when he finally turned into what looked suspiciously like a dive restaurant. "Ugh, are we really eating in here?" she asked him as she surveyed the dim lighting and the loud music inside blasted her senses.

"They have great food! And the music's always live. It's one of my favorite places to go." He told her, grabbing her hand before she could resist and pulling her in, seating themselves and then waiting for menus to be delivered. Rei allowed herself more than a cursory inspection of the area after a few moments, when she saw that Jadeite was not watching her so minutely, as he was trying to flag down a harassed looking waiter. The decoration was eclectic, but somehow, everything went together. There was everything from vintage posters and advertisements to random pieces that must have been gleaned at garage sales. Rei was impressed by the amount of work that must have gone into creating such an environment, and while it was loud and brash, it went just right with the music, which was actually quite good, now that the shock of the volume had worn off. In a corner, she saw some kids and an adult or two playing what looked to be vintage arcade games, and when she turned back to Jadeite, he was watching her closely. "You wanna play a game?"

"Um, no, I'm fine." She told him, and he shrugged, giving in with surprising ease. This made her suspicious, but while she had been looking around, he'd secured menus, and he moved onto the topic of what they would eat too fast for her to question his behavior.

"So I thought we could split a medium pizza, but I'm not sure if you could eat more or less than that. Usually I wouldn't take a girl to get pizza, cause she'll just take three bites and then say she's on a diet or she's full or something, but I think I can rightly assume you don't give a shit what I think about your eating habits. Am I right, Hino-san?" he looked up from the menu, and she blinked at him, momentarily dumbstruck. "So, do you eat pizza?"

"Sure." She answered, before clarifying. "Pizza will be fine."

"Okay…well, what sort of toppings do you want? They have all these specialty pizzas, those are all really good. Or if you want, we can get something more traditional." Jadeite waited, and Rei realized she would have to select something, so she glanced the menu over before pointing at her selection without comment. "The six-cheese? That's a good choice, I've had it before." He grinned to show her he approved, as if she cared, and then waited for the waiter to notice them again. Rei took the opportunity to skip off to the bathroom and wash her hands, and by the time she had returned, he had placed their order and also procured a pitcher of root beer and two glasses of ice.

"You ordered drinks all on our own." She commented. "I'm so proud."

"I know, it's a big step." He gave her a mock solemn look. "But I figured I should take the risk. Plus, that was what you were drinking when we were at the arcade the other day, so I knew you wouldn't mind."

"You remembered that?" she blinked at him. "How could you remember something so stupid?"

"I like you a lot, Hino-san. I told you." He smiled at her, and she felt herself wanting to smile back before she reminded herself that he was an asshole who took advantage of girls all the time and respected no female. "If you'd give me a chance, you'd see that."

"If I gave you a chance, you'd forget my hair color, and probably my name." Rei shot back. "You only pay attention now because you're like a little kid, and you want me, so your attention is all focused on me. But as soon as you get distracted or you get what you want, which you _won't_, then you won't remember anything about me. You won't care."

"You have serious male trust issues, Hino-san." He told her, a slight pout on his face. "Why can't you just accept that I'm _serious_ here? You could ask any of my friends. How long have I known you? Almost two months, and this is our first date, and I've been trying that long just to get you to agree to this. Ask them if I ever put more than two weeks of effort in. I never do. Except for you, Hino-san. You're special."

"I'm sure you tell every girl you dump that they're special." She told him, sipping her root beer. "So excuse me if I forget to be flattered."

"You are! You…I just, I want to know about you, okay? I want to know what makes you work, what you think about, what you like, what you don't like, all of that. You're just a really cool girl, Hino-san, and I want to get to know all about you." He told her.

"Line." She examined her fingernails as if she were totally disinterested in what he had to say. "Try again."

"I really do!" he sighed and seemed on the verge of giving up before he spoke again. "Okay, how about this? I'll answer a question if you answer a question, back and forth, and we can't lie. Okay?"

"Sure." Rei was intrigued. She was not hiding anything deeply scandalous, so she did not worry that this game would hurt her, but she was sure she could catch Jadeite in a lie at some point. "But if I catch you lying, the date is over."

"I won't lie." He assured her. "First question. Why do you live with your grandfather instead of your parents?"

"Okay, that one's easy." She was disappointed he was asking her questions that were so innocent and mundane. "My mother died when I was a baby, and my father is a big businessman, so he doesn't really have time to raise me. Lucky I have Grandpa, or I'd be one of those children who just raised themselves while their parents were out of the house." she sipped her soda. "Now it's my turn. Why did you pick me to harass that first day we met?"

"Honestly? I wouldn't say I picked you, so much as you appeared, and I just…forgot how to breathe. That hair, those eyes, that voice…and you were such a bitch. I love that about you, Hino-san." He smiled cheekily, and she rolled her eyes at him. "Next question. What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"That is such a stupid question." Rei snorted in annoyance. "Of course, I'll take over the shrine for Grandpa."

"I didn't ask what you _will_ do, I just asked what you wanted to do. If you could do anything you wanted." He clarified.

"Oh…well, I guess in that case, I'd probably travel all over. I'd like to see the world, and I've never even been outside of the country, so I guess I have a long way to go." She admitted.

"Really? Not even to Korea or China?" he wanted to know.

"You already had your question." She pointed out teasingly. "It's my turn. How many girlfriends have you had?"

"Ever?" he asked, and she nodded curtly. "Well…I mean, there was this girl in kindergarten who _said_ she was my girlfriend, but I still believed in cooties and all that, so I didn't really—"

"Okay, consensual girlfriends only." She revised her question and he paused, looking up at the ceiling for some time.

"So…girls that I would actually say, 'hey guys, this is my girlfriend, have you met her?' with? Because…" he paused still thinking.

"Yes, exactly." She prompted.

"Um…well, really…none." He admitted. "I mean, I've been out with probably…twenty girls, or something around there, but I never really wanted to go out with them more than once or twice. Usually, by ten minutes into a date, I'm wondering if she'll let me put my hand under her shirt or not, because otherwise, the night's a total bust."

"No pun intended, I'm sure." She prompted, and he laughed, seemingly surprised she had made a joke. "Well, just in case that was your next question, I'm not letting you put your hand under _any _of my clothing."

"That's fine, I didn't expect you to even let me consider getting action until like…the tenth date." He estimated.

"You would actually stay with a girl that long? That's at least two more months. That's almost half your school year." She informed him.

"Well." He pulled a napkin out of the holder and began unfolding and refolding it nervously. "I told you. I really like you. A lot."

"Still not getting your hand down my shirt." She assured him.

"Got it." He smiled, and she returned it, apparently forgetting to be horrible to him. Maybe he was making progress after all. Jadeite felt his heart race, ignoring the weird idea that he was committing so much time and effort to being with one girl, just to see her smile, just to hear her talk, to be near her. What was wrong with him? He didn't know.

And suddenly, he just didn't care.

The End (Of Part 11, That Is)


End file.
